Battle of Benjamin Hall
by Grantz
Summary: Thirty students are trapped in a building for thirty days with nothing but random items and hidden clues.  Will they find the truth behind their imprisonment and escape?  Or will the paranoia coerce them into doing something sinister?  Done. Please R&R.
1. Pieces

It was the end of a long day. No stress could be quantified by the amount of midterms and long exams, of recitations and quizzes, of reports and papers to be submitted that day. As far as everyone was concerned, it was over.

The break had begun.

Summer, Semestral Break, Christmas, it was all the same. It didn't seem to matter for any student, especially the Seniors, who in their last semester, have toiled and toiled...all for the satisfaction of their respective professors. So it comes to no surprise that these people, the students; the new generation—the future pioneers of 2008, would sleep easy tonight, knowing that they deserved this hard-earned rest.

Cue Liam.

_**Boy #2: Liam Carbuncle**_

Liam is somewhere right now, but even he doesn't know where. It was some kind of monolithic structure, seemingly devoid of life. Why and how "seemingly", Liam thought, as he sort of knew there were people in there with him. There were people he hung out with—his friends. There were people that he knew that were just there—acquaintances. There were just other people he may or may have only met once—strangers. Either way he knew they were there and they were just as confused as he was.

Where were they? What were they doing here?

Slowly, he would get up. Looking around a bit, snapshots in his mind began presenting itself to him. Little by little, the images began showing his familiarity with the place. He's been here before. And that wasn't all; he would hear murmurs now where there was once silence. His friends, he just knew, were trying to reconnect—rejoin together. They were trying to find each other, just like him.

Now the scene dramatically changes for the worse.

Now the smell of burnt wood and smoke fill the air. What was once mild chatter, turned into screams of panic and despair. The building was burning, and Liam was running now. As his legs carried him to god knows where, more images of the dreaded structure whizzed past him, and then the picture was complete. Ironic that the destructive burning flames had given light to his situation. It was Benjamin Hall.

The conclusion had spawned many questions, but no time was spared for them for Liam could hear many a cry for help. Try as he might, he could not see anything but shattered visages of fire and rock as he ran himself into a dead end wall. Slowly, the flames advanced on him.

He cursed.

His fear of death was only overlapped by the fact that he couldn't find and save his friends in time. Though he didn't feel responsible, there was an air of uneasiness, as if he could have done something but didn't or couldn't. He could only imagine how his companions were slowly burned to a crisp. Finally, he needlessly panicked as the flames enclosed itself on him.

As Liam opened his eyes for the last time, it felt weird for a moment to still be able to smell the smoke as the fire completely engulfed his entire body.

The smoke...

...

...he could still smell it!

Liam quickly sat up in a daze. He was sweating profusely, and who could blame him. He had just died.

"G—G-Guuuhhh...,"

It was a dream after all, but it seemed too real! Heavily panting, Liam tried to pick himself up only to stumble backwards and land on something soft.

"H—huh? What's a mattress doing here?"

It was a king-sized one, possibly enough for 3 people. But he was alone there, and it was dead silent. Liam began looking around frantically, as he realized a pattern in his thoughts as if something had registered.

He was back in Benjamin Hall, the foyer to be exact.

Beside him, the gate was locked from the outside by a padlock. As he wondered what he was doing lying down on a mattress in his favourite school building, he couldn't help but take a whiff of something he had been breathing since the beginning of his nightmare: smoke. Without hesitating, Liam attempted to trace the smell. It didn't take long though as he turned his head and looked behind him.

There was another person. A dead one.

Liam could only look in horror as he recognized the person straight away...

Day 1

_**Boy #3: Bryan "Burke" Lennox**_

The image was surreal. Burke was dead. His body was strewn in a sitting position, by the step beside the stairway. His eyes were closed, and Liam was grateful for that. He was still shocked though, but he couldn't take his eyes off his friend's lifeless body. Burke's neck was black—almost burnt, and yet no other part of his body was touched. Beside him was a white, round-shaped device. Liam realized that's where the smoke was emanating from.

Liam reached for the object, carefully wary of Burke's corpse. It was a white ring with circuitry lined on the inside. It was still warm as obviously it was still smoking. One of the sides had been sliced off, but it didn't look like Burke tore it off his neck. The cut looked intentional, like it was there before. As Liam attempted to figure out what was going on, he started feeling something around his neck as well. He attempted to tug on it, but to no avail. And slowly, he realized that whatever was around his neck was also around Burke's.

As Liam pocketed the broken collar, he felt a thick piece of paper in its place. Taking it out, he saw it was a note. He also began noticing that his friend was holding the exact same kind of paper in his other hand. With nothing else to lose, Liam curiously opened up the note:

_One night, you, and several others in your class were going to take a most normal midterm exam right here in Benjamin Hall. Naturally, after studying, you make your way here at exactly 6pm, arriving around the same time as everyone else. The exam itself lasted till 9pm. No extensions._

Liam looked up for a moment, distracted by a gleam in his eye. It didn't occur to him until he was reading that it was already morning. Quickly looking at his watch, he had guessed right. It was five o'clock. The sun hadn't risen yet, and the air was cool. Realizing that, he read on:

_When you finished the exam, the bell rung, and all of you stepped out. Instead of going home however, you decided to have a little chat with your friends. It was after all, the last day of the school year. You probably won't be seeing each other in a long time._

It was true. It was the last day. That day...was yesterday! The exam was harsh...it dictated the future of every student that night. And the thought of the absence of a curve proved its cutthroat implications. It was study or die. Pass or fail. There was never a closer simulation to real life than that exam, that's for sure.

_But what started as a casual conversation about how hard the exam was (and how much you probably wanted to strangle yourself for it), turned into a long talk about what the ensuing break would entail. Time flew and before you knew it, it was 11pm and about 30 of you remained._

_As you and your friends casually headed home, you realized the gate had already been locked from the outside. Apparently, the guard must've thought the other one was open, and had accidentally locked you all inside for the night. What the guard failed to realize though was that the break meant the school wasn't going to be in operation for a long while._

_As you agonize about how beautiful your well-deserved break was going to be, you realize that you're going to be stuck here for a very long month. 30 days, to be exact._

Thirty days? Liam shuddered from the very thought of the number. If what this note was telling him was true, then there should be 28 other people in this building.

_This is a simulation of that premise. I say simulation, because you'll be provided for. You may remember a little while ago I gave out a piece of paper and asked you all what was the one thing you would bring if you were stuck in a building for a week. I randomized the objects and gave you each something to provide for each other._

"The mattress...," Liam thought. Checking the side of the mattress, there was a tag with the number twenty-two on it.

_**Item #22: Mattress**_

_Some items made sense, while others were 'for the hell of it' answers. Either way, that's the choices some people said, so those were the items I provided. Any mistakes that might happen will be because of your wrong decisions. I randomized who gets what because I want you to realize that only by using each other can you get through this so easily, which brings me to why you are here right now..._

_Congratulations!_

_You're one of the thirty lucky students chosen to participate in the Battle Royale. The goal is simple: survive. You may have noticed something around your neck. It's a collar that tracks your every move, and monitors your life signs. This is to ensure that you don't cheat. You wouldn't want to anyway, as it will bring about dire consequences._

Liam gulped as he imagined what Burke had tried to do. Now he was very reluctant to try and take off his own collar.

_Attempting to take off the collar will result in an electrical shock. The voltage increases every time you do something wrong with it. What these Don'ts are will be explained shortly..._

_There are two ways to finish this game. The first way is you must be the last student standing by day 30. You must eliminate the competition and ultimately choose between yourself and the people you know. You must do anything to survive. If you don't get with the program, you'll be eliminated without reason. Take this warning seriously._

_The second way is harder but will ensure that not just you will survive. Within these 30 days, you must find a series of clues lying around this building. Piece them all together, and you will find a way to unlock these collars, and then maybe you can enjoy what little of a break you might have._

_My only clue to you is that this is NOT your usual exam. Assume everything, and everyone. Leave no stone unturned and no person unchecked. They will each have something to hide, as will you. Be careful._

For a second Liam noticed something move at the corner of his eye, but he ignored it as he was too intrigued by the awkward game mechanics. What did it mean by 'eliminate' and doing 'anything' to survive? Surely, it didn't mean it in the literal sense but a dead Burke gave his mind ideas...

_The winner(s) of this game will receive a flawless recommendation to the university of their choice. It may seem wrong but, just think about the trouble you're going through just for that perfect spot on that resume. This is a Battle Royale after all..._

The words 'Battle Royale' dwelled in his mind. What could they actually mean?

_Now for the guidelines:_

_- One person must be eliminated per day._

_- On the 30th day, the last person will not be eliminated, and will be declared the winner._

_- It is possible for more than one person to be eliminated in a day. If that happens, then the next days will not require elimination (that number is dependent on the extra people eliminated)_

_- The collars are being tracked to within the vicinity of Benjamin Hall. Any attempts to go out of bounds will result in elimination._

_- Attempts to remove the collar causes instant elimination._

_- If no one has been eliminated within a required day, one of the still-functioning collars will activate on its own, forcefully eliminating a person. The time at which this happens is random._

_- In order to realize if someone is about to be eliminated, the collar will flash red and beep in order to warn you of impending elimination._

Liam froze. He saw what Burke tried to do. He saw that rule in the note. The words "Elimination" kept running through his head. No matter how much the guidelines tried to euphemize it, it was clear as day: the Battle Royale wanted him to kill or be killed.

_Well, that's it. You're on your own from here on end. I wish you all good luck and may the best man or woman, or group win._

And that was that. The bottom was purposely ripped but it was clear who the organizer was. It could only be one person: Professor Polk.

In that respect, Liam was glad it _was_ Professor Polk, and not any other person. Anyone else and it just might look out of place. The epitome of a terror management professor, only Polk could cook up something like this. He has the experience, the connections, and a solid sense of humor. He's also a very good teacher, and Liam was divided in his thoughts about what to believe...does his intention include killing his own students?

No, it must be an illusion. Burke's death scene portrayed before Liam must be some sort of set-up, in order to get things into the mood. He never looked at Burke again, and turned around to go to the nearest washroom to wet his face. In his mind he knew Burke was dead, but he kept telling himself otherwise. It just can't be is all. It's too hard to believe...

Regardless of what he thought, it was clear that he must play this game, and since it was the beginning of the break, he may as well enjoy it.

Hurriedly running to the sink, Liam was about to open the faucet when he heard a slight snoring sound. It was coming from one of the cubicles. Taking small steps forward, Liam cautiously approached the leftmost cubicle and opened the door slowly. As the door opened, he saw another one of his fellow classmates asleep on the toilet.

_**Boy #18: Albert Jagger**_

_**Item #11: Pillow**_

Realizing that his best option was getting as many people as he can, Liam nudged Albert awake until he wriggled out of his sleeping trance. They talked for awhile, with Liam mostly dictating from the note he found. Albert expected finding a similar note in his pocket, but found nothing. It was puzzling how Prof. Polk didn't want some of his students to know what was going on. If only things were this easy finding people. Their next move however was beginning to draw a blank.

Benjamin Hall wasn't exactly the biggest building on campus. The first floor contained most of the classrooms, as well as the audio-visual room, and the materials lab. The floor above it, was more exciting in some ways. The head office was there, as well as the majority of the computer labs. And lastly the third floor, which completely baffles Liam, if not everyone in his class. The third floor was Electronic Engineering territory, having only one normal looking classroom-the largest in fact. That was all that was known. And of course there was the rooftop, where no known student has ever gone up.

As Liam headed outside to where Burke's body was, Albert cautiously kept his distance as he followed suit. Were they supposed to just fight to the death now? It seemed laughable but at the back of their minds there began laying the possibility that the thought might become a real intention.

"Shit!"

_**Boy #6: Dirk Ramsey**_

"Where is that thing...," Dirk frantically said.

Obviously realizing that Dirk hadn't spotted them yet, Liam cleared his throat to get the necrophiliac's attention. Dirk spoke as if he knew they'd been standing there all along. He feverishly pushed Burke's body down and attempted to search his backpockets.

"What are you doing?" Liam asked, obviously disgusted by Dirk's vile act. Albert just stood there, in similar amazement. A slight guffaw could be seen, as thoughts of Dirk molesting a dead body began filling his mind. It didn't last long however, as Dirk finally found what he was looking for.

"Hah! I knew it was here!"

_**Item #9: Nintendo DS**_

As Dirk pulled out the DS, Burke's body dropped to the floor in a ragdoll motion. Liam turned away the moment he saw Burke's face. The sun had risen for quite some time now as he inadvertently saw Burke's pale complexion. He had apparently been dead for some time. Dirk however, was ignoring all this, and proceeded to operate the handheld gaming system almost immediately.

"What the-Pokemon FireRed? This is soo...,"

Liam braced himself before the words he dreaded came out. It was spoken in the most annoying fashion known to any man.

"LAAAAAME,"

Both Liam and Albert cringed. There's always been something annoying about Dirk's catchphrase. Whether or not it was the fact that it came from Dirk itself or that the phrase was spoken in a certain way was beyond anyone.

"Oh hey guys," Dirk finally said, still not looking up from the DS in his hands.

"Dirk...you do know what's going on right?" Albert asked out of curiousity.

"Battle Royale...collars on our necks...30 days...yeah yeah...it's all so lame...I know," Dirk said, half-heartedly slurring his speech somewhere. He wasn't exactly interested in what Liam or Albert had to say.

"Aren't you worried? BURKE'S DEAD!" Liam said.

"Dude, this whole thing is so lame. You know, it's never going to work. We'll probably just stay here until that guard finally comes and unlocks that gate. SO till then...I'm going to enjoy some Gym Leader battles, kay?"

Liam began thinking about it. It's possible Dirk could be right. Maybe he was just exaggerating...

"Besides man," Dirk continued, determined to prove his point. "Do you honestly think Burke is dead? He's just playing around, check this out...," Without lifting the DS off his sights, he kicked Burke's body over so that his face could be seen. "White powder equals pale skin, yo. This is just too LAME!"

What happened next was just too fast to recall. Dirk may have kicked a bit too hard, as Burke's neck snapped as part of it tore off like old newspapers. His eyes also opened, revealing them to have been completely whitened out.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

Everyone screamed-Dirk especially, in a somewhat high-pitched yelp of fear. The screams echoed all over the building as birds within the vicinity begin flying off in random directions. They fluttered through the staircases and classrooms of Benjamin Hall. They flew fast in between Liam and Dirk, in as much as they had to drive them off with their arms.

Eventually, the panicking birds all flew up through the centre of the building, which had an open roof. And as Liam and the others followed the birds with their eyes, they began seeing familiar faces appearing from the ledges of the upper floors. More heads popped up, apparently waking up from the loud screaming.

That's when Liam and the others finally saw them.

Faces of their friends were here.

And one of them was next.

**Results:**

**30th** – Burke: Failure to follow protocol. Attempted to cheat via loophole manoeuvre.


	2. Reality

Day 2

It took awhile to get everyone together. Most of the students claimed to have started out in the same fashion as Albert and Liam; asleep in a random part of the building. Nobody claimed to have started from the third floor.

It was clear that some doors were unlocked, but much to their surprise, the doors to the inner sanctum of the main office—the heart of Benjamin Hall, remained locked. It was useless trying to call from any of the rooms. All the phone lines were mysteriously dead and the tech support room—the room known as the hub of all computer connections, remained to be locked.

Nobody knew what was worse: finding themselves in an impossible situation, or believing that this was some sick cruel joke played on them. The most difficult part was the first night, when many of them had to sleep on the ground. Some of the lucky few got to sleep on the soft couch at the main office's reception, as well as the soft chairs in the multimedia rooms.

It was agreed upon that the girls would be sharing the mattress, but even at that...they had to draw straws to see who was going over to the now fly-infested Burke to try and snag the thing.

Most of the students slept in the classrooms. The ones that didn't either couldn't sleep, or just chose not to at all. They hung out on the second floor, and just talked the night away. They talked about things that made them forget there was a dead body downstairs. They talked about the possibility that someone was coming for them, that they could be saved.

But no one came.

Twelve hours have passed and now it's two in the afternoon. Everyone was currently bumming around. Occasionally, one or two people would try to kick the gate down or grab a nearby object in attempts to smash their way free but to no avail. They would always get tired and give up only trying again five minutes later. It was a worthless effort, regardless. The gate lock was bounded by several thick chains, and the windows were barred from the outside, preventing any hasty breakouts.

Shouting was also fruitless as no one seemed to even be within the vicinity. It was as if the entire place had become a ghost town. But amidst those that were trying to force their way out, there were of course the smart ones. Amongst them was one of the smartest girls in the batch.

_**Girl #5: Evelyn Gillespie**_

Evelyn was different from the other smart girls. She had this air of casualness, as if their situation hadn't even begun to turn for the worse. And though she knew Burke's death was real, she was determined to find the way out.

She had made a suggestion earlier about a plan, which began with a meeting in the central hub of Benjamin Hall—a mini-garden filled with small trees, mossy rocks, and a concrete walkway lining up in the middle. It was the only place in the building with open air. The rest of the rooms encircled this place.

"Okay. First of all...how many are we?"

Everyone started pointing their fingers and counted around, but it was Liam that answered first.

"Twenty-three," he concluded. "This is so weird. I could've sworn TJ was with us that night. But I don't see him anywhere,"

"We're six short then. Minus Burke, I mean," Evelyn said, subtly mumbling that last part. There was no need to raise any more panic within everyone. "Okay, has anyone NOT read their notes yet?"

A flurry of hands showed up. Evelyn raised her eyebrow towards the semblance of cooperation and smiled, "I don't want to have to explain it so just read it for your selves. Your notes are stuck behind the tags of the random items given to you. It's a pretty long read so-"

"Wait a minute, did you say behind the item tags?" Liam interrupted. "I found mine in my pocket with the bottom was ripped off,"

"Huh? That's impossible. It should be taped to the tags, how could that have happened? "

But before Liam could inquire some more, the answer slowly came to him. Somebody had deliberately taken his note and put it back in his pocket somehow. But the only person who may have been awake before him was...

"Dirk," Liam looked around and saw that he wasn't part of the crowd, but hanging out by the foyer just like yesterday. Without hesitation, he quickly headed towards Dirk, who was half-asleep on the stoop. He was about to talk to him when he saw Dirk crouched in a weird position, with his head slightly tilted as if he were in some sort of trance. Liam squinted and realized Dirk had been staring at something in the distance...the Nintendo DS.

"What's up with you, now?"

"I have to play it," Dirk curtly said, not blinking or moving an inch.

"Then play it. Battery's dead?"

"Almost!"

"You played that thing the whole night?"

Dirk didn't speak anymore. From the looks of his body language, it would seem that Dirk never slept at all. He probably didn't bet that he would have to end up this long inside Benjamin Hall. For a second, Liam felt a hint of pity. That is, until he saw Dirk's note, still stuck behind an item tag. The item in question was a piece of paper that lay flat on the ground right beside where Dirk sat.

Liam picked up the paper and turned it around. "What's this, Dirk?"

It was a picture of a girl in her teens. Behind her was Benjamin Hall, and judging from the people in the background and the darkening sky, it was taken sometime before the exam. Below it, something was written in ink: _My Girlfriend _

_**Item #28: My Girlfriend**_

"That's my item," Dirk managed to say, as he blinked and took a deep breath. "I don't even know who she is."

Liam laughed inside. The thought of Dirk ever having a chance at getting a girlfriend was nigh impossible. The idea lingered for awhile until he finally remembered what he came here for. He resolutely opened up Dirk's note. There didn't seem to be anything remotely different than his own note, until he got to the bottom. Where his part was ripped, Dirk's note had an extra clue written on it.

*** Go to B120 for more information.

"B120? This building's room number 120?" Liam said to himself, perplexed. He slowly checked the rooms around the first floor, his eyes following the room numbers closely.

"B115...116...117...,"

The trail ended at 118, and there was nothing more after that. It couldn't be in the other floors that much he was sure. The first digit clearly said 1. There was another thing that puzzled Liam. Something about Dirk's note...

"Dirk, you told me yesterday you knew this was a 'Battle Royale'. But how could you have known that when your note hasn't been opened."

"Someone told me," Dirk responded, still not taking his eyes off the DS. "TL;DR and all that, you know,"

"Who told you?" Liam asked, decisively wondering who took his bottom half of the note. He could only stand in amazement as he heard Dirk's response.

"It was TJ, why?"

Meanwhile, Evelyn was still waiting for everyone to finish reading the mysterious note. She just couldn't figure out how any one of them would not have noticed the gate was locked that night. Perhaps there was that tiny possibility that last night wasn't exam night. The note merely mentioned that this was all a simulation, and not to mention, that things weren't what they seemed. With nothing else to work on but those assumptions, Evelyn turned her attention to the one place that hadn't been searched.

"Has anyone checked the third floor yet?"

No response amidst the bustle, and in exchange there were only expressions of reluctance and ignorance. The message was crystal clear to Evelyn.

"Look, I know you're all tired and hungry. And half of you are probably thinking: 'Who made her leader?' Well, if we don't decide to work together as early as now then we'll never get anywhere! It _does_ look like you're dreaming, doesn't it? But that was all one night ago. By now you should realize that this Battle Royale will HAVE to happen,"

"It can't be real, can it?"

The crowd turned their heads slowly to spot the speaker.

_**Boy #15: Leo Renard**_

"Even you can't say that you believe these collars can actually do us harm! I don't care how Burke died. This can't go on forever. This is a freakin' violation of human rights!"

"We don't know that, Leo," Evelyn said, careful not to mince words. She wasn't about to bring up the topic of the electronic collars. Doing so might create more panic from the people.

"This is just some kind of sci-fi prop. Nobody in this whole school is capable of making something like this,"

"Okay, Leo. Why don't you try taking it off then," Evelyn swallowed her pride. She hoped Leo might back down and listen to reason.

She was wrong.

Before Evelyn could take back her word, Leo had already begun tugging on his collar. What came next was in fact an electrical shock that quickly jolted Leo's fingers.

"Agh!" Leo jumped. Everyone else stepped back as well.

"I told you! It's all real!" Evelyn reasoned. She hadn't bet on Leo getting hurt, or the collar actually working for the matter. Now at least, she knew. They all knew. But Leo wasn't ready to admit his errors yet.

"Well okay, so they can shock you," Leo hastily said, wiggling his fingers from the shock. "But I'm still alive. And we haven't 'eliminated' anyone today. How do you explain that?"

BEEP BEEP

Just then, a beep could be faintly heard. The crowd slowly began looking at each other, trying to find the source of the beeping. It sounded like a digital alarm clock, as it got louder and louder. Eventually the tempo of the sound increased, until it was unbearably loud.

BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEP

Then Evelyn remembered one of the things that were written on the note: something about an alarm sounding before forceful elimination. Calmly, she scanned everyone's collars from left to right until at last she found one collar in particular had a small blinking light in sync with the beeping...

_**Girl #8: Nelia Meyer**_

"Wh-why is everyone looking at me?" she said, panicking fearing for the worse.

"Calm down, Nelia," Evelyn said, as she approached her slowly.

"I...I'm next, aren't I? NO! THAT'S NOT FAIR! NOOOO!"

Nelia began running around everyone at random, asking for their help. Evelyn tried to keep up but Nelia was just too fast for her.

"You've got to help me. Someone, help me get this thing off! I don't want to DIE!"

"We're not sure of that!" Evelyn yelled, but it was no use.

Nelia wasn't listening to anyone anymore, as she kept getting pushed around by the crowd, afraid of what would happen if they were within proximity of her. Eventually Nelia gave up. She ran to towards the backyard gate to the south, which was also locked. The beeping was really loud now, and had turned into a high-pitched tone.

As everyone looked on, Evelyn included, they could do nothing but wait, as Nelia began to cry. She turned around to face her friends for the last time and said something incomprehensible before feeling the collar activate and induce a high-voltaged shock!

"AAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!"

Streaks of what looked like blue lightning began sparking around Nelia's collar, as she was thoroughly electrocuted. Most of the students turned away in horror, but even at that, they could never forget the piercing scream of a dying person.

It seemed like an eternity had passed before finally the blue sparks stopped, and the collar overloaded into a small explosion. A defining 'pop' could be heard, as the collar was destroyed, taking a chunk of Nelia's neck with it. Smoke surrounded the yard for awhile.

It was over.

Leo fell on his knees and slammed the ground as hard as he could. Nelia was a really good friend, and it felt like the worse thing in the world to see her die that way.

"SHIT! WHO'S DOING THIS TO US?"

"Leo look..."

Leo looked up as he saw Evelyn pointing towards the gate where Nelia was just standing. As the smoke cleared, Nelia's dead body dropped to the ground. Behind her, the gate stood...but not for long. Leo could see what Evelyn was trying to tell him: the explosion caused by Nelia's collar had broken the chains that held the gate closed.

The gates were open now.

**Results:**

29th – Nelia: Failure to deliver during deadline.


	3. Always

Day 3

Another one bit the dust.

Reactions varied amongst the students. Liam had heard the explosion, but was lucky enough to not have seen it at all. Leo tried to hold it in, constantly blaming himself for Nelia's demise. As for Dirk, he stayed silent as ever by the steps, oblivious to everything.

That night everyone had clumped together in the classrooms, afraid of who was next. Nobody felt like going to sleep. They were either afraid of dying and nobody waking them up, or the fact that they haven't eaten in three days now. It was the witching hour of the third night, and someone amongst them was about to die. Amidst the fear and the hunger, many were close to breaking down. The lights were turned on to prevent anyone from sleeping. But no one dared to turn on the lights outside the classrooms, afraid of seeing Nelia and Burke's bodies.

The night went by slowly; Evelyn tried to calm everyone down but to no avail. Without food, it was simply pointless to try and form some sort of control. They were losing their will to live. They were beginning to lose hope. And all they had left was each other. The ones who could still talk grouped together in the well-lit classroom as they talked the night away once again. The majority of them had collected together to try and forage from the items that they got.

"Well, you guys have already met my matress...," Liam weakly said, attempting to conserve any energy he had left.

_**Boy #13: Elroy Delaney**_

The group turned to Elroy, who simply shrugged. He wasn't exactly the quickest of the bunch, only opening up when spoken to. This time all he could muster was a simple nod. Whatever his item was, it wasn't on his person. Apparently, he had nothing to show for.

Some of the items were in plain sight, pretty close to where they had woken up. But it wasn't until the realization that random items were being given that they had noticed the items were there in the first place! Other items were small enough to fit in pockets and these were the first items to be brought to light. And lastly, some items just weren't around at all. It's possible that they've been intentionally hidden, but who is to say at times like these.

As the note they found said, some of the items seemed useful. Others were bordering useless, and some were just plain weird.

After Albert showed his pillow, a humorous remark ensued.

"At least you guys have some semblance of utility. What am I going to do with this?"

_**Girl #2: Regina Holmes**_

_**Item #7: Desktop Computer**_

There was mild laughter for a moment, but it couldn't be helped! Regina claimed to have been leaning on it as she woke up for the first time. It was pointless to try and hook it up as it didn't even come with any wires or additional hardware.

"My turn, huh! It's so obvious who mine belongs to...,"

_**Boy #9: Tristan Morrison**_

_**Item #14: Baseball Cards**_

In his hand, were a bunch of mint condition baseball cards, laminated in hard plastic. Tristan was right. Though the items were randomized, some of them plainly stood out. There was only one person who'd have wanted to bring a shoebox full of these illustrious playing cards.

But where was he?

Come to think of it, as the group scanned the classroom, they were amazed that he was nowhere to be found. Little did they know that the person they were looking for was up on the third floor, enjoying the view.

_**Boy #10: Richard Ravenmarshe**_

_**Girl #4: Holly Ashton **_

Accompanying him was his girlfriend Holly. For awhile now they'd been sneaking out of the classrooms for some privacy. There was just something about the premise of being trapped that only goaded them to be together even more. And as an old saying went: it doesn't feel so cliché anymore when it's happening to you. In this case, no words needed to be said, but it was clear that they had intimately made a pact to be together forever no matter what.

"I'm hungry...," Holly worryingly said.

And without saying another word, Richard managed to fish something out of his jacket pocket. It was a medium-sized jar containing something small and delectable...

_**Item #20: Gummy Bears**_

Carefully not making any sounds, they each took one from the jar and started eating. They took as little bites as they could, to carefully savour the flavour of red cherry and greenish lime. That was their meal for the day, nothing more. And while it did look painfully unethical to hoard food from everyone else, they considered the alternatives: would they share fifteen packs of bears between the two of them, or let "fair and wise" Evelyn take these fifteen packs and haphazardly distribute them to more than twenty people?

They wouldn't last a day that much they knew.

And so they kept the food all this time. It was starting to become a symbol of their unity, they're willingness to stay together till the end. While that idea stuck on and started out as a stupid notion...it's become apparent to them that their lives were in real danger, and that these were truly harsh times.

They could still remember what had happened on that day...

_Day 2 (Flashback)_

"_SHIT! WHO'S DOING THIS TO US?"_

Beyond Leo's emotional breakdown, everyone looked on as Nelia's body slumped to the ground. Behind her, the chain on the gate had apparently been destroyed by the blast from the electronic collar.

"Alright!" someone from the back yelled enthusiastically after what seemed to be an eternity of stunned silence.

Heads quickly turned to see who had apparently praised Nelia for dying. But the guilty one was too quick for all their eyes. It didn't matter though, as much as anyone would have berated that person, they knew he was right. The gates were finally open. They could finally leave. But before one of them could even attempt an exodus, they were stopped by a very familiar voice.

"Hold on!" Evelyn warned. "The rules clearly said that we can't exit the premises,"

Leo, who was still recovering from his episode, began standing on one knee as he half-heartedly agreed with Evelyn. After seeing all that action, that was going to be the last time he would attempt to tempt fate. The rules of the game became much clearer now to him and anyone else who dared to find a loophole.

"This wasn't supposed to happen. It was a loophole they couldn't have expected..." Evelyn said, trying to see where her train of thought was going. "I don't suppose one of you guys could try and...step out to see if it was safe,"

"It seems safe...," Albert spoke up. "I mean look at him...,"

Shocked that someone had escaped her vision, Evelyn quickly ran to the back gate and everyone else followed suit, carefully evading Nelia's smoked corpse in the process.

_**Boy #19: Ian Townsend**_

"IAAAAN GET BACK!" everyone was shouting. It wasn't until one of them took a closer look and realized he couldn't listen if he wanted to...

_**Item #29: Ipod**_

Apparently, Ian had borrowed an Ipod from someone and had blared them up to full volume. This had become evidently apparent as the tunes of what seemed to be rock and pop could be heard emanating from Ian's headphones. In addition, Ian didn't seem to be himself either, as he suggestively walked towards the fauna for one thing: a lone cigarette that was perched on top of a derelict marble bench.

"He's doomed...,"

_**Boy #16: Jared Armstrong**_

"I never should've lent him that Ipod. You should've seen him, he was ready to wrestle it off of me. He kept talking about needing a smoke. He said he'd go mad without one within 24 hours. I thought if he listened to some music he could forget about it...,"

B...BB...B...BB...

Everyone froze. Were they hearing what they thought they were hearing again?

BB...BEE...BEEP BEEP BEEP

Sure enough, as Ian walked towards the cigarette, his collar had begun beeping just like Nelia's. Everyone tried to shout again, hoping that their combined efforts could bring Ian back, but it was no use. The beeping from Ian's own collar seemed to accompany the Ipod's tunes, as they both cancelled the shouting.

BEEEEEP BEEEEEP BEEEEEEP

The beeping was getting louder and more frequent now. At this point, some of the students began turning their back on the lost cause. After seeing Nelia die, they could not bear seeing it again. But Leo wasn't about to let another go down.

"NOOO!"

Nobody knew what happened after that. Maybe Leo froze just a second too late before he ran after Ian, or maybe some of the students were pulling him back, afraid Leo might die as well. This picture had long been erased as part of the trauma. It was clear to everyone standing by that doorway.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

Ian was as good as dead.

Day 3 (Present)

The events during Nelia's death WERE expected, despite what Evelyn thought. The way out had clearly been a tease, as obviously shown by the cigarette used as bait. And slowly it became obvious that they could simply break the chains down by grabbing the chairs that had been lying around the classroom, or used any strong weapon-like object. In the end though, they were still as good as trapped no thanks to those electronic collars.

Richard and Holly tried to forget about it, but from where they stood, the open gate could be seen in plain sight. It was the only point of view from which they could see the moon shining brightly. And from afar a romantic picture was drawn for it was the first night that some other light source brightened up the building.

Unfortunately, the image didn't last long as it was broken by a loud scoff.

"Huh. Pathetic,"

Richard turned his head towards B304, a classroom that seemed to be devoid of life. That is, he _thought_ it was devoid of life, until his eyes got used to what the moonlight was trying to show him.

_**Boy #20: David Squallo**_

Realizing someone else was there the whole time Richard quickly hid the jar of Gummy Bears in his pocket, much to David's chagrin.

"Don't worry...I'm not concerned with that. I would've done the same anyway...,"

David didn't move from where he stood. He was still leaning back against a pillar with his head down, apparently in deep thought.

"It's just that I couldn't help but look at you two and turn away in disgust. Do you really think the two of you can stay like this forever? This is a Battle Royale. People will die,"

"Fuck you!" was all Richard could say, as he almost attempted to lunge at David only for Holly to hold him back. It wasn't even an insult, but the hopelessness of the situation meant that everyone was on the edge, including Richard. David though, was still just as he always was: brooding and nothing else.

"I know how you feel," David reassured. "But you haven't truly felt like you love someone until they've slipped through your fingers...,"

The pair couldn't help but think what David was talking about, until David himself confessed to his own enigmatic narration. "...I should know. I was the one that pushed Nelia last before she...,"

Though Richard and Holly couldn't see it, they could feel David cringe slightly as he shuddered and shook, only to go back to his monotonous brooding form. "I imagined that was the last time I was going to meet a good friend—by pushing her away,"

Richard relaxed himself. David wasn't only right in that respect, but it just felt pitiful listening to all that angst, knowing that somewhere around the corner the same things might be happening to them as well.

Before David could speak again, shadows flashed on the other corner of Richard's eye. Holly saw it too. In fact, they've been noticing it for some time now, but had been dismissing at as tricks being played by their eyes. That last dance though was too perpetual to be just an illusion. Slowly, Richard approached one of the rooms opposite the classroom from where David stood.

"We should get the others...," Holly reasoned but who was Richard to turn down something that meant no harm. Who in their right mind was intentionally out to kill them?

David didn't even flinch. "It's probably nothing," he mumbled to himself. He stayed calm in the moonlit darkness as he waited. It was none of his business.

Richard had neared a door that had the words "Electronics Laboratory" engraved on it. He was sure this was where all the shadows were coming from. As he jiggled the door handle, he could hear murmurs and something that sounded like metal clanking. Now he was even more curious. Slowly, he pushed down on the handle and pulled the door open...

"Not today, motherfucker!"

It was all too fast. Something metallic struck Richard's head as he immediately fell to the floor.

"RIIICHIIIIIIEEEE!" Holly screamed.

The silhouettes began flailing in confusion upon hearing that voice. Holly could see there were two of them.

"Oh no...what have we done?" one of the figures said.

"I don't know...you were the one that whacked him," the other one argued.

Click.

The lights were open now, courtesy of David who was now standing by the stairs as the scene became clear as day.

Instinctively, Holly ran towards where Richard had fallen and sure enough, he was lying on the ground. His head was bleeding badly as it had been busted wide open by something hard; something that soon fell on the ground and made a loud clank sound.

It was a steel pipe.

_**Boy #17: Charles Manchester**_

"I thought it was a prowler! I-I didn't mean to hit him!"

Holly tried her best to comfort Richard but it was too late. He had slipped away the moment he was bashed in the head. There was nothing more that could have been done to save him.

"Richard...," Holly sobbed, torn and heartbroken. She was lost in thought now, as Chester attempted to try and grab Richard's head, only to have Holly push him away. "Stay away from me!" she screamed.

David froze by the classroom doorway. He didn't want to get involved. He didn't want to get hurt again. Slowly, he slipped out the other way, and disappeared out of sight, leaving Holly to her devices.

Shortly after the fact, Liam and the others had heard the noise and immediately ran upstairs. What they initially saw however came as a big surprise to them all. Charles was so disheartened by his cruel act that he ran down to the second floor and locked himself in one of the multimedia rooms.

Another one was dead. It was going to be a long night.

**Results:**

28th - Ian: Failure to follow protocol. Went to a restricted area.

27th - Richard: Occupational Hazard.


	4. Lunatic

Day 4 (Midnight)

Charles banged the desk beside him as he slithered into a fetal position on the floor. His eyes were firmly shut as he attempted to wipe out that single solitary memory…how he had picked up that pipe as a precaution and how he thought he could take on anyone. But that purpose was soon defeated as he took a blow at a fellow student. The invincible image had shattered into despair.

He had killed.

Upon Richard's death, Liam and his friends had come running upstairs. The first thing that they noticed was Holly, who was still on the ground holding Richard in her arms. Charles had long fled, but his friend was still there, as confused and reluctant to speak as Charles himself was.

_**Boy #5: Daniel Ibsen**_

The difference was, he wasn't the one that took a life and so he can only handle as much pressure as if he were to put himself in Charles's place...which he didn't. He reasoned that he had nothing to do with it. As far as anyone was concerned, Charles acted alone and it is his burden to carry alone. With that mindset though, it wasn't as easy to form a verbal explanation:

"See, me and Charles. We were uhhh…we were up here uhm...,"

Daniel choked with every period in his sentence. At a loss for words himself, Daniel just opted to stay silent and let the emotions fly.

The moment Richard's body came into view, everything just fell apart. Regina instinctively buried her face on Liam's shoulder. The sight of a cracked skull was not pretty. Liam himself felt like puking, having an aversion to blood and gore himself but for Regina's sake he held it in.

Elroy took it much more strongly than anyone else. His affinity for films has already drawn him a picture of the indescribably wanton. This was nothing to him. Hollywood had trained him well. What bothered him though was his loss for words. Slowly, make-believe and reality were blending and blurring between the lines. He hadn't expected to see a dead body up close.

Others weren't as subtle with the reaction.

"There's like, a hole on his head. Gross!"

_**Girl #1: Carly Constantine**_

Seconds later, she was met with a resounding slap to the side.

"Shut up, Carly. Don't you have any respect for the dead?"

_**Girl #3: Grace Healy**_

Of course they both knew what had happened. Of course they knew how they should be feeling. But the way the pair worked in tandem, was their own way of shielding themselves from the grief and disgust. In their minds it was devastating, with no clear way to reverse it. The thought would forever haunt them until the end of their days, supposing that day ever came.

The emotions continued to get thrown around, but eventually it lead to Daniel being inquired as to how he and Charles were caught up in this whole mess. For one, they weren't even in the same class as the others. But this was immediately explained by a perplexed Daniel.

"A Midterm Exam? Don't you mean a Lab Exam?"

Sure enough, Daniel's (and Charles', so he explains) note was written in the exact same way. It described the Battle Royale mechanics, as well as the hint on the bottom to head for the yet-to-be-found F120. The only part that was changed was the context of the exam. It was as Daniel said: a Practical Lab Exam.

Daniel explained how he woke up somewhere on the third floor, with nothing but his item, which upon seeing it made Regina's Desktop Computer look more practical...

_**Item #8: Plastic Bag**_

He explained that Charles had been around in the other room. After meeting up, they began scouting the third floor for signs of life but before they even got to the stairs, they stopped by one of the electronics labs to find something that made them just stay there for a day or two.

_**Item #26: Food**_

Inside were bags upon bags of biscuits, junk food, sweets, and even frozen dinners. It filled up at least half of the whole lab that it looked like they would be able to last for at least twenty more days. As soon as Daniel opened that door, everyone's eyes melted. The sight of Richard's dead body was soon overtaken by their hunger. Nobody even seemed to blame Daniel and Charles for hoarding all the food all this time. Casually, Daniel let out a sigh for that.

David, with his eyes closed and hands in his pockets briskly walked away from the commotion of the crowd. It was easier than he thought, since nobody really recognized him in the first place. David shrugged to no one in particular, realizing that fact. He was always invisible in the eyes of many, and that's the way he would've wanted it to be. Yet somehow his spirits—his inner-self—often debated with him, countering his every reason or thought. Even now David's mind felt heavily clouded as he quickly went downstairs to the second floor, and into the restroom.

Inside, he ran to the sink and started splashing his face with water. The faucet was on full blast as it began splashing everywhere. David was too engaged in his thoughts that he didn't care. All this time he had been comforting himself with words like, "I couldn't have done anything...," or "I wasn't involved in this...," repeatedly running through his mind.

_Are you sure?_

David winced. His eyes rolled left to right, whilst slowly turning his head. There was no one in the room.

"I mean the mere fact that you're talking about it, clearly means you might have been involved somehow. Or maybe, it's because you're _choosing_ to become involved," David slowly stepped back and bent over till his ear was touching the floor. There was nobody standing inside the cubicles.

_Over here..._

David didn't understand. He came inside with the lights off. How could there already be someone inside waiting for him? More so, how could that person know of the events that had just taken place? It was more than impossible. It was illogical.

Unless...

_**Boy #20: Steven Squallo**_

_Why don't you go to her right now, David?_

He was staring right back at him now through the mirror. There was silence save for the sound of water flowing from the faucet. It was his worst enemy. It acted like him, talked like him, and brooded like him. The difference was that he wasn't afraid to tell the world how he felt, a quality David had been repressing time and time again.

"It will give off the wrong message," David reasoned, as he shut off the faucet. He was done washing things away. "His death wasn't my fault. And her anguish shouldn't have to be my responsibility either,"

_Wrong, wrong, wrong…_

David cringed as he braced himself for a sermon from his own conscience.

…_he's dead because you did nothing. She's torn because everyone else was so busy gawking that for a brief moment, they saw her as a spectacle, a museum display of despair. And in their minds, they immediately thought, "How pitiful…good thing it didn't happen to me or us,"_

"I don't want to get involved. We've gone over this already. We stay away from everyone, we don't die. It's that simple."

_How much longer are you going to stay away to realize, that you're in a very valuable position? This is your chance to win this game! Why don't you let me go to her. God knows you're incapable of doing things like that,_ David's hands were shaking now. Steven was treading on very thin ice.

_You have the means and the lack of motive. Make her feel that pain can be shared. I can only imagine what's running through her head right now. With all that bottled up emotion, I wouldn't be surprised if she had gone after-_

"I DON'T CARE! STOP IT ALREADY!"

David tightened his fist and smashed the mirror in front of him. A searing pain had followed as tiny shards flew in every direction. Looking at his bloody hand, he slowly composed himself to feel better-seemingly numbing the pain in the process. He immediately went over to the other sink and began cleaning his own wounds. But his conscience wasn't ready to give up yet.

_I've had it with you! Why do you exist for me? Why do I have to care what other people think? Why do I have to open up to-_

_Wait…_

_This place…_

_HEY!_

"Never send a figment to do a man's job."

_You can't get involved! I-I won't let you!_

"Quiet you," Steven said under his breath, obviously tired of his weaker-half's incessant whining. "I'm in control now, and you need a time out,"

_This is because of her isn't it? You can't change the past. She may already be-_

Silence came in a blink of an eye. Literally. It was clear which one of them was the boss.

It's been happening for some time now. At first it didn't seem weird that David would rather be called someone else but as time went on, this other-self soon grew uncontrollably until David himself believed there was in fact another self. And that invocation was all it took to bring Steven to life. Why and how the other name even came to be was beyond him, and maybe for that moment it wasn't him that was doing to choosing.

Steven left the restroom a little too quickly as he didn't notice bumping into someone on the way out.

_**Girl #6: Katrina Lilbourne**_

"Watch it!" Katrina quickly snapped, subtly hiding something behind her back.

Friction sparked between the two. Steven remembers how David's selfishness once crossed her. The result was an explosive backlash. But who was David to argue about running away from the situation? This was Steven, Katrina was talking to.

"Sorry," he curtly said. "I didn't see you there,"

"J-just watch out next time," One could tell Katrina found her anger misplaced as she walked away. It was as Steven surmised: the way both men saw the world was different. And the way people acted against or with them was varying as well. And if anything, their about-to-be-a-skirmish would've ended by a familiar voice from above:

"DINNER IS SERVED!"

Steven looked up to see snack foods of all sorts fall from the sky. It was an amazing sight, as his stomach grumbled to the call for nourishment. Quickly looking back however, he was surprised to see Katrina had disappeared. It was too dark and it felt tiresome to try and find her. He was curious about what Katrina was holding, and why was she walking the 2nd floor corridor all alone. But hunger prompted to overtake curiosity as Steven hurriedly ran downstairs.

Everyone swarmed to the grassy area in the middle as food continued to rain. In their dying need to eat something, they simply ignored or forgotten that three people were dead. They were just happy to be eating something was all.

Amidst the sound of food crunching, and wrappers being ripped open, there was a tiny click-clack sound of fingers mildly massaging a keyboard. Katrina, who had come down the other way, happened to notice one peculiar person typing away in the corner.

_**Boy #11: Mortimer Timms**_

_**Item #1: Laptop**_

It was dark in that part of the corridor. The screen dimly lit up Mortimer's face, and eerily reflected the light back through his glasses. As Katrina neared him, Mortimer didn't flinch. His eyes were carefully affixed towards the screen, and his fingers hadn't stopped typing yet. Looking over his shoulder, Katrina couldn't believe what Mortimer had been doing.

"How can you be doing homework at a time like this?"

Mortimer, apparently noticing Katrina's presence, didn't react and smoothly answered her with a straight face. "It's due after the break. Might as well do it…,"

"You don't care that we're stuck here and now?"

No response came, but Katrina knew the answer anyway. It was just Mortimer's way of conserving energy, and putting it all into his coding. Ironically this was the most excitement one could get out of Mortimer. If he wasn't coding, he was the most boring person to be with as he always felt the need to be constantly reading readings and working like that was all there could be in life.

"Eh? This isn't even your laptop!" Katrina said, noticing the girlish air surrounding the laptop. Not to mention, there were old stickers on the cover and the laptop itself smelled like perfume. "Who does this belong to?"

"Nelia," Mortimer replied. "Not like she's using it,"

"Mortimer!"

"No no! I mean she lent it to me before she-you know." Mortimer trailed off. He stood up, seeing a somewhat disoriented Katrina. "Are you okay? You look tense."

"It's nothing!" Katrina said as she walked towards the rocky part of the garden. Mortimer could've sworn there was a gleam in her eyes before she started talking again. "It's just of all the people I have to be stuck in here with, it had to be some of the MOST annoying people! Like…David…stupid asshole can't make up his mind. First he's disrespectful and now he's being nice. I just don't see what his problem is!"

"David's a good guy when you get to know him," Mortimer said, as he set the laptop down for awhile. "He can just be a bit lonely sometimes so…"

"And that Dirk…!" Katrina continued, as if Mortimer hadn't spoken at all. "I don't know…he's just so much more annoying than anyone in this building! But after tonight…," From where Mortimer stood he couldn't see what Katrina was doing, as she started to head back from where she walked in from.

"Okaaaay…," Mortimer managed to say, as he couldn't resist slinking back to the corner and concentrating on his schoolwork as if nothing had happened. His stomach grumbled as it coincided with the sound of students hurriedly eating and laughing it up.

"Maybe just five more minutes…,"

While Mortimer passed himself up for a meal, everyone had a wonderful feast that night. Most of them were still oblivious to the dead body up on the third floor but word would spread soon. Amidst the merriment, there were just too many things going on that night.

Far too many. For even in one of the lab antechambers, Charles sat squirming.

"Mmmpphh…mmmph…,"

Wriggling like a worm, Charles was now struggling to break free from his predicament. He wasn't exactly sure on what happened, but he remembered Holly coming inside and telling him it wasn't his fault. A moment's notice later, Charles was now tied up to a chair and gagged. Perhaps it was because of his false sense of security and the panic running through his mind that gave him away. Or perhaps it was the fact that Holly had been carrying a concealed weapon beneath her charming façade, as Charles now felt the pain of the blow slowly flowing back to his head.

It wasn't enough to kill him, thank god. Or was it?

The hustle and bustle of students enjoying their first meal in days was the perfect sound muffler for what Holly had in mind, as she meticulously put ten Gummy Bears on the table, directly in front of Charles.

"Wh…wha…?" Charles managed to say, wriggling out of the cloth gag. But before he could ask any more questions Holly quickly took two and shoved it in Charles's mouth. Charles's eyes widened, taken completely surprised. The candy fought with his tongue until he managed to push it out and take a deep breath. The discharged gelatin flew over his head and disappeared into the darkness. After breathing a sigh, he looked back at the table.

Six left.

Wait a minute, six?

The smell of lemon lime filled Charles's nose. Looking up, Charles once again had no time to react as another was crammed into his mouth. This time it was open as Charles instinctively sucked up the gelatin to try and regain air.

Big mistake.

Holly quickly punched Charles's gut, forcing the gelatin to come back up…only to be blocked by Holly's other hand, now covering Charles's mouth. Charles was struggling now, he arms attempting to break free from their bonds. His eyes widening and whitening with each passing second. The only things he can see now were the number of Gummy Bears left of the table.

Four more.

Charles was convulsing now, all the while frothing in both the mouth and the nose. His lips, and nails were slowly turning blue. His pulse, was beginning to race as fast as humanly possible.

Two more.

It was dark in that room but Charles could see various colors swirling through his head now. His mouth loosened up soon as he began to lose the point in breathing. The veins on his neck were slowly getting thicker, which didn't help him any more than that his collar was also obstructing the blood flow.

All gone.

Charles lay silent now. His eyes completely closed, and his face blue as the moon's pale surface. His arms, which had managed to struggle free on the last minute, now dangle on air. His body had relaxed and relapsed into a position most undesirable to any living person.

Holly just stood there, her hands wet and sticky with gelatin and saliva. Before her was the body of a dead man…the one that killed Richard. Regardless of who it was, all she cared about was the act. Something didn't add up though. How was killing something, suppose to bring back the dead?

The answer came more swiftly than she thought.

Up until that point the answer was pretty blurry, but now she understood. Going behind Charles's body, she pulls out a bag she had previously used earlier to conceal the steel pipe as well as tie Charles up in.

_**Item #16: Clothes**_

Skimming through the various t-shirts, pants, and underwear she finally found what she was looking for-a blanket. Images of the room's ceiling flashed in Holly's mind as she stood up and climbed the table all the while still clutching the blanket.

The rest was history.

Day 5 (Morning)

"NOOOOOOOOOO….,"

The scream was all too familiar, bordering typical in fact. It emanated from Dirk, who was down on his knees at the horrible sight before him.

"What…?," Mortimer confusingly said, who was beside him at that time. Apparently they had been talking about Mortimer's prospect of getting a PSP before all this happened. Dirk just saw it: Burke's Nintendo DS had been smashed to pieces…all the while still having some battery life left.

"I…I never finished the Elite Four…now I'll never be able to!"

"Shut up, nobody cares about you,"

The two looked behind themselves to see David…back to normal. It only took satisfying his hunger to silence Steven back into sub consciousness. It didn't occur to Mortimer and Dirk, but David was actually looking away from them when he said those words.

As he peered into the window of the multimedia room, his head fell to further grief. It was clear that David merely wanted Dirk to shut up because he was heavy in thought…as he still blamed himself for Holly's hanging even though it's been a day now.

_If only you were there, no? Only you could've saved her in time…_

David coughed a sigh, ignoring Steven's jabs at him from the dark. He tried to think of something romantic…something that would fit the picture so as to get his mind away from Steven's premise. He pictured Holly as an angel, an angel of death…eternally desiring to be with her significant other. Slowly his mind shifted to his own favor, as he felt Holly's death to be justifiable…that he wasn't in any way to blame.

_Believe what you want to believe…_

Downstairs, another meeting was being held. Evelyn was up all night, thinking about Ian's death. There was something Mr. Polk wanted them to see…she was so sure of it. There was a reason why the cigarette was outside and why the gates were locked even though it didn't need to. She was so sure it was something more than trying to get a student killed.

"All I'm saying is, why go through all that trouble? Ian's death was a freak accident. It wasn't intended that the Ipod would be the cause of death. And if it were incidental, why go through the trouble of luring out just one student. It's not like this building is booby-trapped or something. I just feel there's another reason why that cigarette was outside…,"

"That reminds me…," Elroy interrupted. "What did you end up having, Evelyn?"

"My item…?" Yvette stopped her train of thought. It hadn't been revealed after all this time, she thought, as about five other faces looked blankly at her. "Um…,"

"HOLY SHIT!"

A loud thud crashed towards the ground some feet from where Yvette and the others were talking. Before anyone else knew, a body was identified.

"Th—that's Katrina!"

Sure enough, her body had crashed as her neck simply snapped from the impact of the fall. Everyone instinctively looked up to try and spot where Katrina had fallen from, and from the 2nd floor hallway, three heads popped up: David, Mortimer, and Dirk.

"No…it can't be…,"

While everyone was searching for the killers up above, Evelyn had scooted herself to where Katrina's body was and proceeded to turn it over. Much to her surprise, something was stuck firmly on Katrina's chest.

_**Item #13: Knife**_

Much to the horror of everyone, it was clear as day: Katrina had been intentionally murdered.

But which of the three did it…and why?

**Results:**

26th - Charles: Avengeance

25th - Holly: Angel of Death.

24th - Katrina: Gravity won.


	5. Descent

Day 5

Katrina's body lay still, as the knife was stuck firmly on her chest. Her neck had been broken by the fall but it was obvious she had been stabbed first. Evelyn had surmised that she may have been killed earlier but that only remained to be an educated guess.

"Are we killing each other yet?" Someone in the crowd sarcastically remarked.

Fingers were pointing up on the 2nd floor where the usual suspects stood. Neither man reacted violently as they were confused by the heat of the moment. What stunned them was that their friends and fellow classmates would be so quick to judge the one of them was the killer. How did Katrina's body get to the ground when all three of them were aware of each other's location?

There was only one logical explanation: one of them had to be lying.

"Hm…typical," David said, as he crossed his arm and leaned back in a brooding fashion.

"What you talkin about, fool?" Dirk frantically said, half-annoyed by David's relaxed demeanor.

"Naturally they would suspect us as the suspects to this crime," David smoothly said. "Just because we weren't eating like everyone else was, they're assuming we were scheming," David quickly snatched the broken DS from Dirk's hands. "You…were too busy to be aware of everything around you that you kept hoarding this thing,"

"I'm n-not an addict!" Dirk stuttered.

"I never said anything about being an addict,"

Dirk gasped, realizing he had been lured into a verbal trap.

"Mortimer on the other hand was busy at the laptop, as he always does," Mortimer said nothing, obviously seeming transparent to David's words. David huffed, slightly annoyed by his one-track mind. "And I…,"

…_was too busy fighting with me? Yes, that's it. Tell them you have a twin brother in the same body. I'm sure they'll believe you._

"Heh," David smirked. "You know, it doesn't matter what I was doing last night. The point is, they think we were up to no good," Dirk looked suspiciously at David, but quickly dismissed it. It wasn't worth arguing with someone who might just end up insulting him again.

"I didn't do it!" Mortimer quickly said. His whole body was shaking in fear, as he clutched the laptop in his hands. David raised an eyebrow to this, and Dirk just looked on. The body language was clear to both of them. He was definitely hiding something.

"Stop looking at me like that! I didn't do anything." Mortimer stopped defending himself as he heard footsteps rushing up the stairs towards him. Mortimer turned to run out of instinct a little too late as Jared managed to grab Mortimer's shirt and yank him back. Leo was following behind to frisk David but was met by an unfriendly stare.

"What are _you _doing?" he coldly said.

Dirk stood close by, seemingly feeling untouchable. The three suspects were led into the most secure place they could think of: the Main Office. Evelyn said it was the most ideal place to do the interrogation. But something else confused her to no end, as she would divulge to no one but herself.

"What's _my _knife doing here?"

Day 8

It has been three days since Katrina's death. Life in Benjamin Hall was beginning to change.

Eventually word had gotten out that three more people had died during the night food rained from the sky. Mostly the reactions weren't that bad. Many were still scarred by the death of Nelia-actually seeing someone die before their very eyes. Some passively fell into hopelessness, slowly waiting for who was next in line. And some of those people were even optimistic that there wouldn't be any beeping collars for awhile.

Evelyn was still convinced that the locked gates were a clue to the way out. But the thought of a killer on the loose was dissuading her train of thought. And while it was even possible that Katrina's murderer wasn't even one of those three on the 2nd floor-it was better to be safe than sorry. She and everyone had noticed the three's deviant activities. Suspicion had already been set even before the fingers started pointing.

The three had been kept under surveillance for the duration of the game. The door wasn't locked though, as they saw no malice in any of the suspects. It was just a safety precaution after all: they were still classmates to the eyes of many. They hadn't seen the sun in awhile, as their eyes had become accustomed to the fluorescent lights. At first the three objected to the fact, but what could they do?

Conversely the others were confused as to how they would go by interrogating the three suspects. For now all they could do was feed them every night. The dilemma was simple: no matter how much they looked at each other, they would not and could not see a killer. They could not even see a criminal. They were schoolmates, friends, close people; not strangers at all. And sight and thought of having them kill was out of the question.

It was, to most anyway.

Regardless, time flew exceptionally well. Seven dead yet it felt like it was only the third day. Some students couldn't even tell what day it was, or whether a week had already passed. The eerie silence only meant that they were truly alone in this world as far as anyone was concerned.

It hadn't occurred to them all until that day in days that Benjamin Hall wasn't such a small building. After practically living in it for a week, the halls, classrooms, and labs were beginning to look like a second home to them…save the dead bodies that were now beginning to pile up. Burke's corpse in particular, had been attracting some very nasty maggots. And few dared to walk the half of the second floor hallway where their eyes might fascinatingly fall upon the sight of a hanging Holly, as well as see parts of Richard's blood drip from the third floor (the blood had dried now but no one was brave enough to check).

As a result, Richard's body had to be moved. It took a collective effort of six guys taking turns to drag his carcass into an open lab. Leo in particular almost puked at the very thought of pulling dead weight. But it had to be done; he was blocking the Food Room.

Nothing was done to move Nelia's body but since it was so close to the gate, she was just covered with a blanket instead (someone brave enough had to fish out Holly's bag of clothes from the multimedia room). Richard, Burke, and even Charles were tolerable in the very least, but there was just something about moving a dead girl. Perhaps it was the dawn of movies like The Ring-which gave way to the infamous 'long-haired ghost' stereotype-that contributed to that fear. Sometimes the thought of ghosts of dead classmates haunting their still living counterparts lingered in those lonely quiet nights.

On the seventh day though, someone started doing something about it.

That morning most evidently marked a brand new day. The air was clean and odorless—a refreshing change, from the usual death and decay. Apparently, someone had gotten up extra early to do the Lord's work.

_**Boy #1: Alex Vale**_

_**Item #3: Bible**_

To those that knew Alex in person, they couldn't help but laugh. He was covered in dirt and dried blood, as he finally covered the last grave with his bare hands. Had the Book of God really changed him from a logical, rationalizing person, to a man of faith? Had it prompted him to bury the dead without abandon?

Only Alex himself would know the answer, as he began flipping some pages and read what seemed to be just random passages. His intentions seemed genuine enough, though nobody was sure but it was the only rational explanation to his behavior. It was peacefully quiet that morning, and for the first time the students felt the calm for the days ahead, as if they had been blessed by a tiny shred of hope.

By the time the sun was finally up, many had come towards the central garden to admire, console, and just relax. The mood was hard to settle in. These weren't just their classmates buried, but people they met, touched, and spoken to not so long ago. For the most part it was hard letting go. It was also hard to assume the position of responsibility. Who was next? How would they die? Was someone really out to kill them?

But those inhibitions dissolved, as flowers rained the open air. There were so many of them…white and gray roses of all shapes and sizes.

Gray roses…?

Paper roses to be exact.

_**Boy #12: Juste Matheson**_

_**Item #25: Philosophy Textbook**_

Sure enough, up above on the third floor, this very same figure was the one responsible to folding dozens of these flowers, as well as pouring them onto the mourners below. Very much like how Alex had perused the bible to stay sane, Juste's obsession with paper roses has caused him to have a focused mind. He used to struggle for ten minutes before even managing to make something that even resembled a rose. Now he was able to make one within seconds, thanks to his book and the time of his life.

In a way, it was his way of trying to stay sane. After helping Alex pull all those bodies and put them to rest, it was impossible for him to not feel the after-effects of death. It was a good thing however, that he was a strong-willed person. His seemingly tiny attention span was enough to pull out from those ghastly thoughts, and focus on more menial repetitive tasks. Something to get away from it all…

Alas, this peace was not meant to live long. For in this life, there were no warnings or second chances. Fate was still as harsh a mistress as she had always been.

BEEP BEEP BEEP…

It's been eight days. The collars have spoken.

Immediately the silence dispersed into unnecessary noise. The crowd panicked once again, all except for two people. Juste was aware that being the only one on the third floor, he wasn't the one in jeopardy, so he remained perched on the third floor's edge, surveying the chaos below. And Alex was still in the middle of his finishing rites. He stood still, as he dictated heavy verses from the bible. He would have every reason to remain calm however as he wasn't the next victim.

Daniel was.

It only took a few seconds to realize it because of their proximity, but Daniel grimly stepped forward without resisting. He clutched his neck hard, dreading the fact that it would be blown off in the next minute or so as tears slowly crumpled down his face. He kneeled by Richard's plot and dug his nails deep into the ground as he bowed his head in what could only look like shame. After mumbling something to himself, he quickly raised his head and announced his confession…

"I killed Richard,"

The crowd gasped. Grace in particular was horrified beyond disbelief. Charles was framed, and Holly had committed an erroneous act of judgment. More so, those last two deaths could have been avoidable.

"It's been eating me up inside, ya know? It was really dark and I didn't think it was a friend…,"

Come to think of it, the suggestion was beginning to be plausible. Richard was a very tall person, the tallest of them all. Charles' lanky frame couldn't have broken anything, even if he tried. But Daniel was the strongman archetype. His large muscular size alone was enough to intimidate.

"Sorry…so sorry…," he said. "They told me I had to do this. They told me if I-"

BEEEEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEE…

"Ahhh!" Daniel screamed, before freezing in place. Everyone scrambled and ran towards the pillars, shielding themselves from imminent harm. Grace wanted to strangle Daniel himself, as she was blinded by rage moments before the others began pulling her away. She fell back after awhile, realizing Daniel was about to get his just desserts.

Alex, who had finished blessing the graves, calmly used the last few seconds to put his hand over Daniel's shoulder and wish him good luck in the afterlife, before walking away as well.

…EEEEEEEEEEEE…EEE….EEP.

The sound stopped. No shocks. No explosions. No noise.

Daniel's muffled cries still permeated the scene. Slowly, heads started appearing behind Faura's pillars. The collar was still intact. Daniel was still there, alive.

"H…huh?" Daniel startlingly said. "St-still alive?"

"Like hell you are!"

Daniel and the crowd gasped in shock, as they turned their heads to see Grace revealing her item which had been wrapped in plastic this whole time:

_**Item #18: Gun**_

It looked real enough, like something out of a terrorist flick. Her aim was shaky due to the weight of the weapon itself, but the target was so close…there was no way she could miss. Not that she'd want to. There was rage and fear in her eyes. It was possible, she thought, that Daniel may be the one responsible for Katrina's death. At this point, the closest thing to a murderer was Daniel.

The crowd went wild. Some egged her on; half-hoping the reverse-psychology ploy would convince her to put the gun down, while the others said nothing, afraid anything else they might try to do would compromise the situation.

"You don't deserve to live!" Grace said, trembling. It had just occurred to her how her friends must see her now. But all that didn't seem to matter for the moment. Her friends' deaths had constantly haunted her because it sounded unavoidable. But now that she knew who was responsible, things got simpler in context. Daniel should have died. That would've been poetic justice. But now it's even better: she could slay him by her own hand!

"When Charles ran away that night…," Daniel continued, attempting to save his case. "…I just kept telling myself that he did it, until I believed myself. It was dark and I was scared. I really didn't do it on purpose,"

"You should've thought about that before you whacked someone over!" Grace shouted back, as her itchy finger massaged the pistol's trigger.

Click.

Nothing happened. The safety was on.

Daniel quickly got up and headed for the back gate. His mind raced on the possible options presented before him. At a moment's notice, he could choose to kill Grace with his bare hands, but the thought was blurred by the fact that he was still guilty over Richard's death. He wasn't a cold-blooded killer. Even with fear and adrenaline on his side, he could not bring it upon himself to use violence.

He was reluctant to go outside…but he had no choice! Taking a step into the green though, suddenly caused his collar to beep unexpectedly, which caused him to jump back. He had forgotten all about the rules as Grace neared him. Slowly trailing behind her was Carly, who amongst several others including Liam and Regina were trying to console her and pull her away from vengeance.

As Daniel jumped back though, he realized that while he was outside, there was a blind spot. It seemed he could actually step on the concrete sidewalk that outlined the building! Wasting no time, he quickly ran right around the building's edge. Grace stopped, tired from running. She looked at the gate's exterior and had an idea…

Daniel quickly ran around the the front of Benjamin Hall. He feared for his life so much that he didn't notice what was happening through the front gate's bars until it was too late. He could see why Grace had given up the chase: they were closing the gates to the back. Daniel was now stuck outside!

After barring the gate with the lone bench by the southern back gate, Grace didn't move. The gun was still in her hand as she slumped by the ledge behind her and waited…waited for Daniel to come back. The only other person beside her was Carly, who remained vigilant for Grace's tired soul. Secretly she cheered her on, hoping to see some of Daniel's guts spill all over the sidewalk. Liam and the others decided to step back and give her some space. She'd have to give up sometime, and if anything…Daniel was doomed to die.

The other students were indifferent to the situation. As far as they were concerned, that was one less murderer to think about. He was outside where no harm could be done, and the students were safe. That night however, was one of the more unbearable nights. It was agreed upon that Daniel was to starve to death. No one, save Grace dared to execute him in a proper manner. And so because of this, Daniel screamed his heart out. He apologized, attempted to rationalize his actions—all the while saying the note told him to-then apologize again soon after. This went on for the whole night, as it slowly died down with every passing hour.

All the while this was happening though; no one seemed to notice the real tragedy. For when the main was revisited again the next morning to check up on the murder suspects, they would spot a lifeless Mortimer with his head down on the conference table. His arms would be on the table. His wrists would be cut. And all over the walls a bloody message was constantly scribbled again and again…

**KaTRInA DeSErVed IT**

Results:

23rd - Mortimer: Murder-Suicide most foul


	6. Trapped

Day 9

"For the last time, I don't know shit! I was sleepin' and I didn't hear a thing. I only just found out he's dead when you guys shook me up…"

His death looked ritualistic. The way his body was positioned looked like he had been positioned with such precision. The only foreign object found was a rusty letter opener…a bloody one. It didn't take a detective to deduce that this was the suicide weapon. But then again, they've never actually encountered a person who slit his wrists before so they can't say for sure if Mortimer truly had committed murder-suicide.

There was also still the question of Katrina's killer. Mortimer had virtually no reason to do the dastardly deed albeit, he didn't really mention anything. The interrogations weren't even trying. But now it was seriously suspicious. Mortimer's death was questionable, as well as the circumstances surrounding it.

"…I mean, I don't even know the guy. I just know what everybody knows: that he's some freak who has to use the laptop all the time. He's just a freak," Dirk said. "He was really quiet. We didn't bother each other. In fact if anything, the noise outside was rowdier than usual. What happened, anyway?" Before Evelyn could say anything, David, who was on the other side of the room interrupted with a mild cough.

"Why don't you just admit it. You killed Katrina, made it look like one of us did it just to excuse yourself somehow, then you silenced Mortimer because he was as you say 'freak' enough to do it."

Dirk quickly stood up in agitation. "What the hell is your problem? You've been nothing but an annoyance ever since yesterday. What did I ever do to you, asshole!"

David scoffed out loud, as he paced around the room. All the while his eyes never left his antagonizing rival. "No offense, but I just really…really… Hate. You,"

As soon as the word left David's lips, Dirk snapped. He lunged towards him from where he was sitting only to be pulled back down by Evelyn. She didn't say anything to David, save a sharp glare signaling him to shut up. But Evelyn wasn't the only one who was trying to get through to him.

_This is all nice, but when are you going to come out with the truth?_

"You'll see…," David said under his breath. "…I just need _one_ moment alone with him,"

As David began relishing the moment of constantly taunting Dirk, that moment's peace was interrupted with a large crash coming from outside, along with the shouts of a familiar person…,

"LET ME IN!"

It was Daniel.

Evelyn immediately left the room, but not before turning around to warn the other two that it wasn't over yet. Since there were only two of them left, if one of them were to die then the true murderer would surely make himself known and that was a move too stupid for both men to do. As soon as the door slammed behind her, David and Dirk looked each other sternly in the eye.

_Interesting…_

Back outside, everyone was gathering around the Back Gate to see what the commotion was all about. They were careful not to cross Grace, who was still hard-pressed on shooting Daniel to death. As she checked for the gun's safety for the eleventh time, Daniel's voice of reason entered the scene.

"I demand you all let me back inside!" he pleaded.

Daniel was nowhere to be seen yet, afraid Grace would gun him down on first sight. Instead, he hid behind the closest wall and began his negotiations.

"I have something….or someone rather here with me. You just have to let me in, is all I'm askin',"

Before someone could ask, Daniel stepped forward. Grace was going to pull the trigger, only to hold back in fear on the last second. Having never held and shot a gun before, she shuddered having to miss Daniel and hit whoever he was carrying in his arms.

_**Boy #4: TJ Lewis**_

His whole body had shriveled to a prune of a man, and that goes without saying. His body had begun recessing back to its bony state, yet the skin was just there and that made it look like the image was horrifying. It's just that he was already a thinly-built person and seeing him like further pushed the envelope.

Daniel went on about how he rounded the perimeter, and managed to spot the generator room close to the shed out back. There were actually two rooms: B119 where the generators were, and…

"B120…," the crowd concluded at the same time, slowly connecting the dots in their minds.

Daniel continued, saying he found TJ slumped by the stoops of those rooms, apparently hungry and tired as he hadn't had anything to eat for over a week. His legs were already broken, as TJ mentioned he tried to jump from the 2nd floor balcony because the gates were locked. He was in pursuit of a clue and remembered seeing it often during his semester so he decided to get there as fast as he can.

The result led him nowhere.

B120 was locked, as was B119. For the first few days, TJ tried to shout for help, but to no avail. As the days went by he became paranoid. What would they do when they find him? With no way to open the gates, would they leave him outside to die? And would he dare to share that B120 was nothing more than a red herring?

It was apparent from TJ's words, as Daniel described, that the morning heat and the lack of nourishment for days upon days, had driven him paranoid and insane. It was a sad attempt to try and win the game. Everyone should've known that there truly was no way out. TJ may have been the early bird, but he had definitely missed the worm.

While all this was fine and dandy information, there was still the matter of Daniel's way in. It was obvious TJ needed some attention and fast, but Grace was still in moral limbo. Could she risk letting someone who killed her friends inside as if nothing ever happened?

She stood her ground as she glared hard at Daniel, who looked like he was taunting her on purpose. It seemed only Grace noticed how Daniel was recklessly waving TJ around in his arms, as if he were purposely objectifying TJ as a "Gate Pass". And yet there was nothing she could do. She was no sharpshooter, and TJ was in point blank range. If only there was another way…

"Hey guys look. I-I think he's dead,"

Much to Daniel's surprise, TJ's arms had gone limp for some time now. And he surmised that the lack of food has caused his body temperature to betray him. For TJ was now as cold as ice, and his face was beginning to look pale as well. It was official…

"W-w-wait! He was still alive just now, I swear-"

BANG!

Daniel's body fell to the ground, as TJ's carcass simultaneously fell on top of him. The two bodies lay motionless as Grace shakily put her gun down. There was an awkward feeling surrounding Benjamin Hall now. For the first time they had all seen death by someone's hand in the most gruesome way possible. So why did it feel so good?

"YAY!" Carly ecstatically screamed. "RICHARD HAS BEEN AVENGED!"

Evelyn had nothing to say. She and several others just tried to justify it in their heads that if Daniel didn't have to go, then someone else would once again. This was madness! They had to find a way out without all these distractions happening.

Nobody tried to wrestle the gun out of Grace's hands. It wasn't because of her ability to keep herself in check. They were just too afraid of being blamed if someone had died again and the gun had come to their possession. Alex came close to advise Grace of her future actions, but nothing came of it. For the rest of her days, the gun remained attached to her hand as if it had become a part of her.

Leo was beginning to get a little paranoid, as he noticed that there wasn't even a proper trial for Daniel. On the one his killing was accidental at best. The mere fact that he confessed could've meant that he didn't intend on killing Richard in the first place. But on the other hand, Daniel could just be following what the note told him to do, and his confession was merely an act to better his peace of mind, clean his conscience, prepare himself for where he was going.

He shuddered at the thought of having to mercilessly be maimed, shot, or stabbed at any moment in time he may choose to do something different from everyone else. For the world was beginning to slowly close in on this prison. From here on end, everything outside didn't exist. This world, was run by their own rules now: a twitchy, paranoid society of students who merely want to survive by hook or crook.

And Leo was sure he wasn't the only one thinking of this. Even Evelyn had the idea cross her mind once so it came as to no surprise that everyone was sure to be pondering on the concept.

That night nobody slept, not because there was the fear of death and the lack of necessities. But now there was the fear of their acquaintances turning on them. In this place, existing laws do not apply. If someone didn't die by the collar, it would have to be one of their own. Friends could become enemies, enemies could become friends, and the dead would remain dead.

The Battle Royale had begun.

Day 10

The day began with Leo's trip to the main reception. It was his turn to check up on the two prisoners. As he opened the door, the musky smell of blood overpowered him, leaving him heavy on the chest before managing to get inside.

The fact of the matter is, Mortimer was still dead. And because of that, his deathly air had begun circulating. There was no air conditioning, and the windows were barred shut for some reason, so those didn't help either. No matter how many times the students have seen death; they still could not get over the horrid sight. It was after all, a human reaction in its truest form.

Rounding the corner towards the cubicles, Leo was somewhat surprised to see both men on their best behavior: David was taking a nap with his head down, as his arms supported him on the table. And Dirk was on the far end of the cubicles, apparently finding something new to tinker with…

_**Item #2: Sony PSP**_

Once again it kept Dirk occupied so much that he hadn't noticed Leo enter the room.

"Dude…," he called out. He was exasperated from this 'routine' check-up. And this role of prison warden was dragging him on to the point of pointlessness. Why was he even here? What good would it do to create order when anomalies just seem to happen anyway? He just couldn't see how acting like an authority figure seem to fit with what this game had in store for him.

He should've snapped all those days ago. He should've begun killing already.

"David…?" Leo said, tapping him lightly in the shoulder to wake him up. Even though Leo had gotten the cold treatment earlier, it was still better than trying to talk to Dirk, who was busy dodging cops in the streets of Los Angeles.

"Hey! Wake up!" Leo said, as he shook harder. But David remained a heavy sleeper. The silence was killing Leo.

"HEY!"

A slap to the back was all it took to reveal David's true colors, as his body had fallen side wards to the floor. David was asleep alright: as silent being silent…he was dead. The letter opener from Mortimer's murder revealed to have found a new home as it was lodged in David's forehead. Leo jumped back in shock. As he tried to regain his composure, he could not help but eerily peer at Dirk, who seemed oblivious that there was a dead body beside him.

"Dirk…David's-"

"Yea," Dirk managed to say, as he swerved by another cop car. "S'been like that since yesterday,"

Results:

22nd - TJ: Early bird misses the worm.

21st - David: Brain dead.


	7. Fellowship

Day 10

"Heheheh. I'm doing it. Can't believe I'm doing it,"

_**Boy #14: Marcus Larson**_

It started out as an idea, a tiny figment in his head. It was just so awkward to talk about, that it couldn't help but be tossed away deep down into the subconscious. And as the days and nights rolled by, it developed at the back of his mind. It matured and evolved. The more it was being repressed, the more it came to be a possibility.

"This is crazy. I'm not. I don't. It's just craaaazy,"

A notion.

"Nonononono, I HAVE to do this! Hehehheh..."

An act.

Marcus strained his muscles until he could not stretch anymore. He could feel the rest of his body feeling cold, as if his spirit was temporarily leaving it. He could feel the wind in his face getting stronger, but only because he was losing blood in the upper part of his body. The only place left that didn't feel numb was his hand and arm. He let out a breath or two, occasionally chuckling to himself to make things look less awkward. Marcus could only begin to imagine what would happen if he was caught on the roof executing this stunt!

"Ohh...gaaaad IT HURTS!"

His eyes were closed now, afraid of fainting from the tension. He tried to rest in between his stretches but realized if he kept resting up at every second, he would never be able to compose himself to do it again in the near future. As he did these things, a paradigm shift began to work its way across his body. His need to finish what he started slowly became a must, as in, a must-do-or-die. And that being a Battle Leoale, death might just be around the corner for him.

"Sh...shit...S-S-S-SOOO CLOOOOSE!"

But the ability to just do without questioning his ethics was the most difficult part. There was no transformation, no epiphany, so to speak. He was forcing it upon himself, imposing it, harnessing the power of brute force. His whole body warmed up to the sensation of freedom, or at least a semblance of it. He felt powerful, like no other person could attain what he had just done.

"YEEEEEESSS OH GAD YEEEESSS"

He'd done it.

_**Item #5: Cellular Phone**_

"I GOT A SIGNAL! WAHAHAHAHAH!"

It took some time to do it, but it finally worked. Marcus had been standing on the roof for several hours now, with one hand on the cold iron shaft that is the antenna and just stretching out with his other hand, in hopes of capturing a signal of his own. The bar had been fluctuating for seconds and minutes on end, but now he had finally found a signal at just the right spot. Marcus almost let go of the phone as he saw the bar go up by one more.

"...,"

Marcus couldn't believe his eyes. It was hard enough getting one bar up, but now there were _two_ of them! The moment had come so swift, the Marcus himself almost fainted. He had been standing there for over two hours now and his whole body was beginning to give up on him. Without thinking any further, he gathered the last of his strength and began to dial some numbers with his thumb...

"A signal," he faintly said. "Uhm. Hmmm,"

Marcus cursed in the air. Come to think of it, he hadn't thought his plan was actually going to succeed. Now that it has, he hadn't on who or what to call. Marcus tried to reboot and reshuffle his mind with common sense and logic, but even those failed him as the vertigo slowly began to get to him. His arms suddenly began getting heavier as one of the two bars slowly disappeared.

"Getting tired here,"

Even worse was the fact that he had begun hearing voices in his head. He could've sworn they were just whispers in the wind, but it was becoming too frequent to become a coincidence. Each time he heard them, they began to get clearer and clearer.

_Come down here, you. You're gonna get yourself killed._

And the message was just too much of a coincidence to pass it off as nothing. Ever since Richard's death, the food supply had been moved to the first floor classrooms and no one dared to go up to the third floor anymore. And because of that, the roof deck always had this eerie atmosphere now. Though Marcus didn't want to admit it directly, he did believe those voices were of a more ghastly nature...the spirits of his dead student friends warning him, or tormenting him whichever came first. As the overwhelming thought began engulfing Marcus's mind, his body finally slowly gave up on him.

He let go of the antenna.

With nothing left but the wind keeping him up, Marcus wobbled left and right on the rooftop as he attempted to get back towards the stairs. But his failing vision, threw him off for the last time as one misstep prompted him to slide down the roof's slippery shingles and jump straight off the ledge of the roof.

The rest was blurry, but some say not even a tired shout was heard before the body had fallen roughly four storeys onto the ground.

It was too early in the morning for anyone to have noticed it. Though Marcus was desperate to get out, he wasn't stupid. He was paranoid enough to realize the moment he made it known that he had a phone in his possession, the rest of his fellow classmates would swarm on him like flies to a pile of crap. Not to mention, knowing Evelyn, she might flaunt her authority and take control of things once again. The thought of Evelyn acting high and mighty had been making Marcus cringe long before he even thought of going up to the roof to try and fetch a signal.

It was business as usual for Benjamin Hall. The monotony of eating food and hanging out slowly became a chore. And even as students got together to try and retain some form of sanity, were the recycled topics beginning to become pointless. If they weren't talking about their own mortality, or who "deserved" to be next, they were talking about killing each other. And at this point, it wasn't certain if these jabs were jokes or actual threats. Everyone just seemed to laugh things off.

Everyone except one particular group of people, who were an old strong Gang in their own right.

Even with the death of Daniel, Richard, and Holly, the gang was still holding it together. Liam and Regina had each other to love, and Grace was sharing sanity timeshare with Carly, whose mind seemed to drift way too much. They were both trapped in a way that only they could understand; it was their own way of staying sane and it seemed to work well for the most part.

One member of the Gang though, seemed to elude this peace of mind however: Tristan. His head was half in the clouds, and half staring into open space. His eyes were flinching every five minutes. It was obvious he hadn't slept a wink for god knows how long. Nobody knows how he just happens to get through the day or what was exactly on his mind. The Gang were the only ones left Tristan would listen to, but even at that their conversation would always go the same way.

That's what Liam had been thinking these past few days. It's beginning to occur to him, as well as various other people that the collars' latent effects have begun sinking in. For every day that passes by, people are starting to see each other as an expendable asset. And with Tristan, it was a double negative. His emotions might literally be the death of him.

"Liam...," Tristan finally managed to say amidst the silence. "I just wanna die, you know...," Tristan slowly said. Liam raised an eyebrow to that notion, not saying another word, and letting Tristan continue. "I've had enough of this,"

"Stop talking like that!" Carly chimed in, "You know we'd never let that happen,"

"Yea," Liam concurred. He didn't know what else to say. They've gone through this routine of reassurance as the days went by. The fact that people close to them were dying left and right wasn't helping with the situation. It was just a matter of keeping Tristan's head straight; to make sure he didn't feel like getting left behind.

"Man...,"

But this time was different.

Tristan, instead of burying his head down, looked on towards the central garden: the graves of his fallen friends and classmates, and made an eerie insight: "I don't know you guys enough. But you guys, you guys are friends. Close friends," And for a moment, Tristan raised a brow towards an amiable Elroy who had passed him. As Tristan felt the presence pass by behind him, his back hair stood on end, and his teeth began gritting.

A black and white eight millimetre short film began playing in his mind, complete with an organ grinder ensemble! Tristan could see himself, stereotypically breaking away from his own devices. As he snaps into an indecent rage, his friends try holding him back but it would be futile. A hint of adrenaline was all it would take to break free, run towards Elroy, and maim him to death with the nearest possible object he could find on the way from point A to point B. He assumes what comes next was easy enough to guess: total chaos.

Back to the real world now, Tristan grinned as he let Elroy walk away unscathed by his wishful thinking. It was so easy to think about doing it. What's not to say actually doing it may not be far around the corner? The two had no relations with each other, they knew nothing about each other but their names. And maybe just maybe, over the years of their stay in the Ateneo not knowing anything, a seemingly invisible animosity grows between the two. Indeed, maybe a reason to die might slowly develop from that. Tristan would take in any excuse to get the job done. He could. He would kill him just to stay alive if need be.

Liam took a bit more imagination. But he saw no reason _not_ to kill him when the time came. How long have they been friends? How long has it been since Tristan, the black sheep of his own clique, migrated to the Gang to be part of something new. The key word was new: he was an addition, not a mainstay. He was an extended family member. Sure, one could just say 'We're friends' and leave it at that, but when it came down to just them, who would Liam choose to live more: his fellow mates who have been around since freshman year, or Tristan, who had just moved in late into the final season of the show.

These were the things that constantly kept Tristan occupied. He was subconsciously waiting for _that_ time, when all the unimportant people were dead, and there was nothing left to cull but them.

"What are you saying exactly, Tristan?"

Of course the concept was foreign to Liam. Friends were friends. They never came with an expiry date or a price tag. And sure there may have been some kind of 'value' system but nothing that would ever compromise the integrity of the friend itself.

At least, that's what Liam thought.

Grace got the message loud and clear. Slowly the thought would catch on to the extent where she could no longer put it behind her. She was afraid, as the idea made her become more aware of her own mortality. But more importantly, she wondered if this awareness was beginning to develop within everyone else as well. She wondered if anyone ever even considered the scenario.

She wondered about Carly.

Unlike Liam, Grace held true to the value system in friendships. She definitely knew that some friends were worth more than others. And the thought of slaying Liam made her cringe in despair every time…but that is not to say she wasn't willing to finish him off. In the very least, she thought of doing it in a subtly painless way. That was her justification to it.

But _best_ friends were different. Carly was different. Killing her would be like killing a part of her own self. The only possible way she could ever do it was if Carly was the one who would turn on her first, but then she thought what if she already has? What if as of this very moment, she was plotting to killing students already?

After a bit of conspiracy theorizing, Grace hit herself hard. How dare she even think about her best friend turning against her? It was a stupid thought, and she blamed Tristan for it. As the hours went by, she started positioning herself away from Tristan, Liam, and Regina. Though the negative thoughts had been neutralized, she didn't want to risk opening up anymore wounds. It was safer this way anyway, she thought, as she clutched her gun even tighter as she kept telling herself: 'Nobody is going to die….nobody is going to die…'

Of course nobody expected to actually find Carly on the third floor (if they actually bothered finding her), having a secret meeting with about two or three people. She herself wasn't sure, as the figures were shrouded in darkness-the darkest corners of the third floor classroom. She had been called previously by someone. She didn't know herself, but necessity goaded her to follow her heart.

Naturally, Carly's curious nature activated like Alice to a rabbit hole. She began developing how's and why's, what's and who's, and slowly disappeared from the face of Benjamin Hall with nothing but a curiously optimistic smile on her face.

Nobody saw her again.

And it's just as well. They weren't prisoners after all, in that context. They were free to go wherever they wished. And worrying about Carly was the least of Grace's problems. The bigger issue that seemed to linger were people like Tristan; not-so-distant-yet-somehow-close friends who's loyalties were beginning to become questionable. And the mere fact that loyalties are being poked at, motions for the students to come and recognize a paradigm shift: Faura was their oyster, and they can do virtually anything…even kill someone.

That was just how much Leo was thinking about as he repeated Dirk's words in his mind, accompanying the shocking visage of David's lifeless body.

"_Since yesterday,_"

David was just sitting there, with the same knife that killed Mortimer and Katrina, now holding his head in place. If anything, the image of his death looked more artistic than macabre. At the same time though, it looked as if David could jump back to life at any second. From where Leo was standing, it really looked like it didn't hurt that much. He was half hoping for David to spring back to life and psyche him out, but quickly hoped not as he realized that would've been a real shocker.

What was really scary was the fact that despite all this, Dirk remained calm and more focused on his PSP game than anything else. It was obvious from his gameface that he didn't wish to be bothered, but Leo eventually connected the dots. David couldn't have possibly killed himself, as he was sitting in a position that was impossible to be in if he had stabbed his own head. And unless Mortimer was actually a zombie, there was only one other suspect in the room…

Slowly, Leo inched closer and closer to where Dirk was sitting. He didn't know why he was being cautious, but it was better safe than sorry. The mere fact that Dirk is just sitting there void of despair, just sends a message. Why is he acting like this?

"Dirk. That's enough of that. You better set your story straight before we talk with Eve-"

Leo froze. He thought maybe the light was playing tricks with his eyes but it wasn't: there was nothing on the PSP! Dirk was playing with a blank screen! The only thing Leo could see on the screen was Dirk's reflection. He was smiling maniacally…

CRASH!

Seeing that Leo was exactly where he wanted him to be, Dirk quickly ducked, and bashed the PSP over his head and straight into Leo's! The impact broke the PSP's screen as Leo staggered backwards, covering his forehead. Shards of black fell to the floor, as Dirk sought the chance he'd been waiting for. He quickly ran to Leo and kicked him hard in the gut. Leo yelled in pain as he scrambled to get up but Dirk would not let him have the initiative and proceeded to kick him again in the head.

This time Leo fell way back, and stopped any attempts to get back up. He shivered as he nursed his stomach and his potentially bleeding head. Dirk turned his back on him for awhile, and came back holding the bloody knife from David's body.

"Don't make this harder than it has to be, Leo. I already said I was sorry," Dirk managed to say, as he threatened Leo with the knife in his hand, urging him to get up. It didn't occur to Dirk until moments later that beating someone to the point of serious injury and then apologizing outright, wasn't exactly helping him prove his sanity.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Leo shouted, but Dirk quickly slapped him in the face.

"I told you to shut it!" Dirk tried to see the fear in Leo's eyes, but all he can make out was frustration. Leo wasn't intimidated at all by Dirk's crude methods, but it's not like he can do anything about it. As Leo tried to ease over the excruciating pain he was feeling, Dirk backed away onto the opposite wall to give Leo some air.

"Will you just be quiet for a moment…," Dirk said, calmly this time. "I'm not going to kill you. But you have to listen to what I'm about to tell you,"

There was no sincerity in the way Dirk talked. Leo could see Dirk's jaw bobbing up and down, but the words that came out were all being made up as they went…and with good reason! What Dirk was about to say blew Leo's mind away…

"David's still alive,"

Day 11

"Almost there…,"

It's been at least a day since the shooting, and Daniel was steadily getting his strength back. By now Grace's bullet had dug deep within his leg as the wound became bearable again, and the pain only came once in awhile. Taking small deep breaths, he bravely scaled the Benjamin Hall's outer surface. He had used TJ's mass and the B119 stoop as leverage. There wasn't much use for a dead skinny person, though. Daniel couldn't eat him even if he wanted to. The best he could do was stomach the fact that he was dead, and that every night that passed by maggots and flies from the dump opposite B119 would migrate to TJ's rotting carcass.

It's only been one night and he was already feeling nauseous. So with nothing left but the clothes on his back, Daniel does just that: he rips out TJ's clothes in order to fashion a pair of makeshift climbing gloves. While they didn't offer much protection from the wall's pebble washout surface, it was better than having to brush with them and run the risk of tearing flesh. The climbing part was easy. Daniel's strength complimented the task well as Daniel finally lifted himself up towards the 2nd floor balcony. As if scaling a rough wall was hard enough, he even had to account for the fact that if he slacked off at any time and went beyond the thin layer of zone that he was safe in, his own collar would activate and kill him instantly.

He was almost there…just a few more inches before gaining leverage to land on the balcony itself. All he had to do was find a place to set his left foot so the other one can climb over the…

"HI DAN!"

Daniel jumped as he lost his footing. His feet slid across the smooth stony surface like running on an oil slick. If Daniel hadn't been holding onto the 2nd floor balcony's edge, he would've fallen by now. He was literally hanging on for dear life!

"Whatcha doin down there? I thought you were already dead…,"

The same voice that startled Daniel earlier, continued talking to him in that same annoyingly ecstatic high-pitched manner. Her tone only meant that either she didn't know Daniel was dangling on the 2nd floor balcony or the fact the she didn't care at all.

Unfortunately it was the latter.

Before Daniel could gain the momentum to swing his legs up, two scrawny arms shoved his shoulders downward. As leverage wasn't on Daniel's side, and the weight he had already been feeling at that point was multiplied by his own fatigue, it didn't take much effort for Daniel himself to let go of the ledge and fall backwards. The fall was so sudden that Daniel didn't even bother to scream, and by the time he did his body had already impacted on the ground…some two feet away from the safety zone.

BEEP BEEP BEEP…

Daniel blinked. Still alive, that much he knew.

BEEP BEEEP BEEEEEEEEP….

He was still dizzy, and all kinds of noise entered his head. But the unmistakable sound of his own collar permeated his thoughts. Realizing this, he quickly motioned to getting up but every time he did so, a part of his body refused to respond. He couldn't feel anything wrong with his body. He couldn't feel at all was the problem.

BEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEE…

His spine had broken up. He couldn't move even if he wanted to.

And Daniel easily gave up on himself after realizing that fact. He knew he was dead anyway regardless of whether he did escape the dead zone or not. As the last few seconds ticked away before his demise, Daniel took the time to think about himself. Tears began rolling out of his eyes, upon realizing the hopelessness of the situation. It's funny what they say about your life flashing before your eyes in the face of death: it would always come in the most inappropriate of moments.

Daniel thought long and hard about these last few days: how he killed Richard without any remorse, or how he threatened TJ's life by using him as a gambling chip. He didn't know, genuinely about how precious life was until he himself is put in danger. This collar around his neck, as well as the other collars on his fellow students…they were all to keep people like him from doing these kinds of things. They were meant to restrain, not induce psychotic deviant behaviour that much he knew. But it's too late for anyone to realize this now.

He didn't even bother screaming anymore as the collar reached its final beep. Instead, a slow smile formed on his face as he realized how lucky he was to have cheated death once, and played the game to its fullest.

And with that Daniel was no more.

She didn't know, nor was she sure as she looked away on the last possible second. She wanted justice just as much as Grace did. And when she saw Daniel alive, she just couldn't take it in her heart to forgive and forget. Nobody had the right to take Richie's life. Nobody.

Nobody but her.

But she digresses as she slowly walks away from her little mess as she was accompanied by a pat to the shoulder by about two or three people.

"Good job Carly,"

The praise was a sign of reassurance and acceptance. Carly felt the emotional push as she climbed back in the classroom from one of the open windows. Looking towards the blackboard, Carly was surprised to see a diagram of what looked like the building's entire layout. Sighing, she remembered what it had been all about: a plan to take over this place, with their side being the superior side!

It was a glorious, and at the same time invigorating feeling. There was no cowardly twitching, hand shaking, or perspiration. The act of killing Daniel was done by no remorse. It was a cold intentional act in itself.

"Didn't know you had it in ya. I was sort of going to suggest something else as a test,"

_**Boy #7: Joseph Grisham**_

"Heeheehee…," was all Carly could say, which partly shocked everyone in the room. Their leader had obviously expected to bring a hand over Carly's shoulder after the deed was done; consoling on her fears and the fact that killing was while not the only answer to everything, a necessity required furthering their causes to win this game. Then Carly's justification of the act would be explained thoroughly through a combination of paranoia and anxiety.

Joseph breathed a heavy sigh, now relieved of not having to do all that. For days he had been waiting for Daniel to die. It was imperative that none of the original third floor inhabitants were there to discover what had been happening on the third floor itself. It was crazy, yes. That was what he thought as well, but he didn't want to risk anything.

Ever since he woke up in that utility closet that night when Daniel killed Richard, he slowly watched the events unfold. He saw how Holly immediately turned into a violent vengeful being. As the days went on, he studied the way people reacted and acted towards each other, as he began predicting when someone was close to snapping.

The nights got mellower after Daniel's exile, where students refused to walk on the third floor. It was at around this time that he could finally stretch out and breathe some air. He rationed what little food he could carry from the electronics lab and brought them back to his closet. He figured why risk being anywhere else when they couldn't find him before anyway. But after awhile he began to think about the opposition; the fact that there _was_ an opposition-his friends and classmates that needed to die in order for him to live prompted him to find some allies. It was as simple as that. It was survival of the fittest.

Fast-forward a few more days and nights to now, day eleven. In the room with him were volunteers and fair-weathered friends that he had been picking up and picking off. There was Daniel, who obviously needed to be eliminated. There was Carly of course, their brand new addition.

And then there was…

"Joseph, I think I almost got it. The first cipher's going down,"

_**Boy #8: Ronald Stone**_

It was Joseph's best friend, Ronald. He was behind the teacher's desk, meticulously clacking away at the keyboard of Nelia's laptop.

"Thing almost gave up on me. Stupid piece of shit!" Ronald hastily said, never lifting his eyes from the screen.

Joseph, as far as Ronald was concerned, just nodded in agreement. He knew his conversation was just a one way mode of talking. When Ronald was hacking, he was in the zone. A barrier was virtually set around him in such a manner that he could not and should not be disturbed no matter what.

From the way Ronald was working, it was very easy to distinguish himself from Mortimer. Though both men shared an affinity for the craft, it was Ronald that stood out more. His coding prowess was unmatched in terms of speed, determination, and that fact that if he was ever disturbed all hell broke loose. Joseph knew well enough of this, as he himself had witnessed Ronald's wrath more than once, away from his general direction fortunately.

It didn't take awhile for Joseph to actually reach madness all those times he spent in the utility closet for those first few days. Even with food, he was desperate to fulfil his other needs, but sadly couldn't because of his fear to be exposed. So it came to no surprise that he would eventually try to find ways to amuse his own self. At first he started counting the seconds that would pass before another would die but that quickly got boring. And one night, he had his eyes adjust the darkness and there was nothing left to amuse himself save the note that everyone got on the first day.

And he saw something that wasn't there before. A letter.

It was easy to miss. It was slightly smaller than all the other letters, and it was hidden on the lower right side of the note. For awhile it seemed farfetched, but perhaps the notes were all importantly linked somehow, to form some sort of divine code. It didn't sink so well at first until he managed to forage the notes from the other dead bodies before Alex and Juste began burying them. He noticed that when the letters were rearranged, they would form a cipher, as well as a line of code. But in order to test his crackpot theory further, he would require a portable laptop of his own (as well as the other notes from the other students), and prying it from Nelia's cold dead fingers in broad daylight was the ultimate challenge for awhile.

It's a good thing though, that they had someone on the inside.

"What! Daniel's dead?"

Cue Evelyn. And slowly it all comes together.

"He didn't need to die,"

Who else would be so interested in finding the way out since square one? Who else would be so trusting and worthy that all the other students should and could look up to as a visionary or leader figure? Who else could the other students so gullibly follow to no end? Evelyn.

"Speak for yourself, Evelyn," Joseph quickly said, responding to Carly's defense. "How else could you have gotten that laptop without anyone noticing…?"

"I told you already. I had nothing to do with Katrina and Mortimer's deaths," Evelyn exasperatingly explained.

Joseph sighed. He wasn't about to go into the same old argument again. But he wasn't one to let her have the final word. "Your knife, Evelyn. Your knife puts you in that scene. And yet every time I pry for an explanation you say nothing about it," And then at this point, Joseph fell back on his original stance, and decided not to argue any further. It was stressing enough as it is, and it was leading them nowhere.

So he let her win again.

"When I agreed to provide you with the means to get out, we also agreed not to kill anybody! I mean obviously we're just a little bit on the edge but outright murdering people is not the solution. And you need me anyways! They'll listen to me more than they'll ever listen to you or Ronald. Trust me on that!"

"The package is arriving right on schedule," Joseph said, pretending not have heard Evelyn's tired rant. "You ready?"

Evelyn stopped talking. She had forgotten about the pre-set plan, the part of the phase that they were to execute today. Her moral compass was spinning out of control, but fear of death overtook it every single time. And for the last time, Evelyn tried to find an easy exit to all this.

"There's no other way…is there?"

Joseph hesitated. There were _billions_ of other ways to get around it. He didn't want to be responsible for what was about to happen these next few hours, but he couldn't just say no to an absolutely perfect opportunity. If it there was truly, any other way, then Evelyn would've stopped him right there. But she didn't, so it must mean she was feeling the same sliver of hope Joseph was.

"Not a one," Joseph reluctantly said, bowing his head down in projected remorse. "The Gang must be eliminated!"

**Results:**

20th - Daniel: The bigger they are…


	8. Senseless

Day 11

Day in,

Lifeless, and empty. The place was deserted. Enter these two suspicious characters, which remain to be but blots on a canvass. They start moving around, in and out of the rooms, erratic as they may seem. Suddenly one stops, nearing what looked like a bed of some sort. Words were exchanged: nothing but garbled messages to him. It didn't really matter. It was blurry, he wasn't sure. It was also the only thing he could see from such a claustrophobic position. Then a scream broke the silence. Other blots were called into the picture as if on cue. What did all this mean?

Day out,

A couple was on the top floor, secretly passing on love bites, and love notes in the form of colourful gems. They devoured them as each minute passed, probably savouring them for the longest time possible. But the silence broke when a burly silhouette of a man decided to wield its whacking stick of death and put an end to this couple. Or was it the lanky-armed tall guy with the goofy hair? He wasn't sure. After that food rained from the sky, as gadgets were smashed, mirrors were shattered, and at least one of them looked out of place. It was the life of a party.

Oh how he longed to be outside instead. But as he realized that he was locked from within the utility closet, all Joseph could do conserve his energy. Without food, his mind began to pull away, and the things he saw further justified his imprisonment for it came to a point that he'd much rather stay than go. The first two days were nothing compared to what would soon become his week of hell. More days in and more days out, he saw betrayal, deceit, and vengeance. He saw angst, sorrow, and inappropriate joy. And all these were happening to the people he knew: his friends, companions, compatriots in Benjamin Hall.

It's them who are changing! Not him! The outside is a bad place!

Fast forward 10 days from his imprisonment, Joseph was free, but not without taking the proper precautions. He was still in hiding, and he was still living in secret. For 10 days a plan slowly hatched from his mind, and his fellow cellmates were there to scheme with him. They plan to take the game under their own control, and win when everyone wasn't looking. And even after their escape from the utility closet in search of food, it would seem that Joseph hadn't really learned to let go of his little habit. He was still watching people from the third floor corner classroom. He wanted to know about their behaviour, their attributes. The key was somewhere in all that mess. He just needed to work the right people at the right time.

At least that's how Ronald saw it. His genius mind provided reason for much of the operational tasks at hand: getting Evelyn on their side first, then abducting members of the Gang for purposes unknown. The former was surprisingly easy. It was amazing how much false hope one can give, and how much the other can easily take without asking anything else. Trust goes a long way...

And the latter? Mere child's play as far as anyone's concerned. A simple tip here, a feigning cry for help there...then there were the wooden chair legs, steel pipes, and glass from the windows that had to be used as whacking devices. The Gang was easily lured as they were clubbed into submission.

For the most part, Ronald was regrettably oblivious. He didn't want to realize these were the kind of people who had treated them well in the past, forcefully turning a blind eye upon himself like some sort of defence mechanism. But seeing as how one of them easily tried to kill herself in the process of murdering another, it was just too risky. They could all come for Joseph and himself. They could all start fighting any minute now.

That was his drive, to do the most by expending the least amount of energy.

To Joseph it was something simpler. A certain item he had been carrying with him since his awakening in the utility closet:

_**Item # 19: Weird Silver Chain**_

For all intents and purposes the story behind this particular item remains to be seen. For days he had been dangling it at the edge of his fingertips, gazing into it like a crystal ball. For days, he had wondered from what alien mother ship did this piece of jewellery hail from. He didn't even know what it was, yet he felt compelled to keep it for some reason or another. When you're stuck in a utility closet for ten days and your friends begin to bore you, it's nice to know you have other things to consider talking to...like this chain.

"Almost there, hurr hurr hurr...," he said, clutching the chain and carefully putting it back into his pocket.

Not only was it a sad picture of the human brain gone mad, but it was also significantly convenient that no one seemed to notice Joseph doing this every single time. Ronald was always obsessed with the code, which until this point still remains a mystery. And Liam was too busy screaming for dear life, as he was tied to a nearby chair in a dark room on the same floor.

"REGINA! REGINA!"

He'd been calling her all day but no one responded. It was eerily quiet as Liam's voice seemed to bounce back at him with every shout. And it didn't matter whether his eyes were open or closed. Liam was blinded by darkness and all his other senses had been numbed by the bruises all over his body. At least he could still blink, which only did two other things: unhelpfully tell him that his eyes were working just fine, and agonizingly remind him of the events that transpired an hour ago.

There wasn't even enough energy to materialize a flashback, for even that was too painful to manifest. He could remember slaps to the face, then fast punches; nothing fatal, but more souvenirs than he can count. Like a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart, it confused him...shocked him to no end...

How could friends turn on him like that?

Luckily though, Liam was not alone. Somewhere behind him, a faint breathing noise could be heard. For those long moments that Liam longed for Regina, and dreaded the worse that would happen, he had inadvertently shut out this other person from his mind's eye. But now it was becoming apparent that Regina wasn't even close to him. A wave of fatigue engulfed Liam's soul, as he slumped down to his knees and prayed for things to go right. And as his tired self calmed down into a level of neutrality, the other's presence gradually came into existence.

_**Girl #7: Joanna Livingston**_

It's amazing how invisible someone can appear to be when all they seem to do is stand in the background as events unfold. And it wasn't as if Benjamin Hall had been totally ignoring her presence. Boredom just struck in the wrong place at the wrong time. Though Liam admits to himself, this is the first time he has ever acknowledged Joanna's presence. He could remember seeing her in that unforgettable midterm all those days ago, on the night before this Battle Royale started, but he just couldn't recall whether she had been sitting there with them all this time without saying a word.

Maybe he should've just done what Joseph asked of him, Liam thought. How could he easily choose the wrong answer in a fairly simple negotiation: either help Ronald code whatever the hell it was that would hold salvation for the Battle Royale game or rot in a cell away from prying eyes and greedy hands. All this time Evelyn was just standing there, on their side, convincing Liam himself to help in the nicest tone he ever heard, as if nothing was wrong. Was she brainwashed? Was she in all this all along? As far as conspiracy theories went, Liam's judgement was already greatly blinded by the fact that Regina remains to be missing.

"Liam...," Joanna finally spoke, in the most sensitive way possible. "...what do we do now?"

"I-I can't think straight right now, Joanna," Liam wearily argued. "I don't know what I would do if she were to disappear!" Liam sobbed, horrifically revisiting the tale of Richard and Holly in his mind.

"There's nothing we can do about the past...," Joanna reasoned.

Liam shuddered. In one swift second, he had flushed all possibility of doubt in his mind. Joanna was right. He shouldn't have to think of the worst case scenario. As long as his love stayed strong, nothing was going to happen. Now calmer than he was before, Liam began to reminisce back to the last hour, picking up the pieces of his traumatized and severely distorted memory.

One word seemed to keep ringing back into his mind: Raid.

Day 11 (One Hour Earlier)

"Raid? I don't understand. What do you mean?"

Liam choked on his own words as he tried to gather the courage to speak up. His mind kept overriding his mouth, always thinking ahead and getting the bigger picture, and _preferring _that option, as compared to just shutting up and leaving the lie hanging.

"DUH! A raid!"

Joseph paced around the classroom as Evelyn stood by the doorway. Ronald was behind the teacher's desk, typing away on Nelia's laptop. Regina was suspiciously missing still...and Liam himself could not move. He was tied up by an amalgamation of what seemed to be rags of torn clothing. Have they been through Holly's stuff?

"I'm going to take over this place, and declare martial law!" Joseph finally managed to proclaim out loud, half wondering if those were the right words. "It's clear that there is a killer on the loose. Evelyn here...," he said, as he gestured in her direction "...has tried her way of assimilating some form of leadership. No offense to her but-" Joseph stopped abruptly and crept up behind Liam to whisper in his ear "-not everyone is going to listen to her. Even if it is in _these_ circumstances, bro..."

Joseph quickly rushed to the blackboard and started drawing some random shapes and arrows. It was a work of art a three-year old would love, and made totally no sense to everyone in the room. Immediately after the scribbling, he began talking again, "I'm going to take a few weapons and some people I've assembled these past few days. And we're going to storm the fucking building until everyone is accounted for..."

"Then what?" Liam interrupted.

None of this was adding up. How was a Martial Law going to save them all from the collars? How is kidnapping him and his friends all fit into this plan? And why is everyone else acting like there's nothing really wrong? It was so inane and pointless, Liam wondered why no one would bother speaking up. "Evelyn! Why are you conceding to these people? Why won't you saying something?" But it seemed like Joseph had gotten through to her a long time ago as she merely turned away in shame and disgust.

"We're all on the same side here," Joseph said, showing a bit of misplaced sympathy. "At the state of panic the students are at this point, they're bound to fight at the slightest provocation. We'll all do our part to stay safe of course. We'll be up here, admiring the view. And when the smoke clears...we'll have enough time to figure out what comes next. No more stupid collars to keep us in check. No more fear! IT'S GENIUS! I'M A GENIUS!"

The sick intonation of the word 'safe' rang through Liam's ears more than once. It made him cringe almost immediately. A full scale massacre was about to be set in motion, and he was the only sane person in the room to see it that way.

"But of course in order for my plan to succeed, I have to get rid of you guys."

"What? That's crazy. None of us knew you guys were hiding up here this whole time. Why would we, least of all anyone be a threat?"

"You don't get it do you? You guys are a _GANG. _If chaos was going to happen, chances are you guys are going to stay on top...protecting each other and whatnot. Power of friendship and all that. I can't let that happen, nubs."

Suddenly Carly came bursting through the door. Everyone, even Joseph was speechless as they saw nothing but the tired and perplexing look on her face. Was she happy? Was she satisfied? No one could tell...

"CARLY!" Liam screamed out of instinct. He was angry but he didn't know where to focus that anger on: His self for not being able to do anything, Joseph for manipulating Carly? Or Carly herself, who had gone out of her way to do this beyond what any moral compass was telling her? Something started to drip beside her now. It was definitely liquid...a tear, a red one. It was mixed with blood. She tried to compose herself, hiding the redness in her eyes but it was no use. She took one step through the doorway, and stopped. Her breathing got heavier, and her eyes watered. She was on the verge of exploding into a teary confession.

"I...I don't think Grace and I are going to be friends anymore...," she managed to say.

Carly trailed off, out of breath and out of strength. She seemed tired all of a sudden, like killing something so dear to her had actually clutched onto her soul and ripped it out as it died. The blood on the ground was a puddle now, as it trickled all the way from her hands, from her arms, up onto the sides of her face...up onto the top of her head. She was bleeding.

As if on cue, Carly fell forward in what looked like her last bow to the world. Her performance had stunned everyone, but not nearly as much as what was really behind the curtain. There was a momentary silence for the first few seconds.

"Grace...?" Liam finally managed to say.

Behind Carly stood her bestest friend in the world, with her own gun in her hand...and it was smoking. She took a few steps forward, admiring her work of art, and then the weirdest smile came out of nowhere...

"She can be a kidder sometimes...," Grace cheerily said.

It was at this point that Liam started losing consciousness. He could remember reaching into a point of soulless rage, attempting to strangle Grace with his bare hands all the way from across the room. But he was stopped short however when two arms pulled him back on his seat and something heavy came down on him. And then things went black. The last thing Liam could hear was the disturbingly innocent tone coming from Grace's voice:

"We've always been friends,"

Day 11 (Back to the Present)

"Liam..."

The blow to the head served as the focal point for Liam's pain. It echoed through every inch of his body, pierced through his now brittle psyche, and shattered his chances at redemption. It was hard enough to try and remember what exactly happened, but that was how he saw it: Grace had turned insane. He never should've tried to remember the past. As picture perfect as it was, he kept coming back to it, each time conceiving a whole new perspective but always ending up with the same result.

"...what do we do now?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Liam shouted back, attempting to shut the noise around him. Once again, he tried revisiting his past self. Over and over, he could never bring it upon himself to forget it. It was an error in his programming, a bug in the system. To see people he knew and loved so well just killing and dying just like that simply didn't compute. As the hours went by, time seemed to repeat itself for him and him alone.

"Liam..."

The same questions were being asked.

"...what do we do now?"

The same things were being said.

"Liam..."

Finally, he opened his eyes and saw it: the dead weight.

_**Item #24: Axe**_

"...what do we do now?"

This was what struck him that day. This was the reason for his pains; all of it. Blood could be seen from the edge of the Axe's blade, and it was still dripping wet. Liam backed off by instinct upon the sight of his own blood, only to end up in Joanna's arms, which felt lightly familiar...but Joanna did not catch Liam. Instead she walked towards the other side of the room and picked up the axe with her bare hands, carefully not stepping on what seems to be dirty dead body on the ground. The sad look in her eye said it all: she was apparently mourning for this unfortunate person's demise.

Liam's brain began to hurt again, but this time it was much more mental than physical. Like a puzzle piece haphazardly being jammed into place, a piece of his memory returned the moment he stumbled backwards. It was an image of Joanna catching him. They caught him by surprise because of the sudden awkward motion, and they held him in place.

And something went down.

And all was black.

The past couldn't look any more perfect than Liam could ever imagine. He was left with incomprehensible doubt. He fell on his knees instantly as soon as the afterthought disappeared. His shook as he tried to push away the dead body on the floor to see who it was. He couldn't. He just couldn't. Instead, he went back to those same memories and tried to comprehend what was going on...what was REALLY going on? Why were these things happening? There were just so many questions. He couldn't help but linger in an endless loop of past perfection.

But elsewhere time went on...

"Liam..."

He looked up now, in Joanna's direction. She was slightly unnerved, but somewhat relieved at the same time. Perhaps she wanted to say goodbye, for all those times of remaining silent, always in Benjamin Hall's shadow, never playing a part in any scene of any particular importance. Or perhaps it was just a gesture of letting go...

"...what do we do now?" she asked once more, looking away from Liam now.

"Oh that's right!" a Juste jokingly exclaimed. "I've been at it for like an hour. He's probably dead, now. We should really get back to Joseph's place. The raid's tomorrow."

And as the two exited the premises, Joanna could not help but look behind her shoulder. When Juste asked what was wrong, she simply said:

"I think I'm going crazy. For a minute there, I thought I saw Liam's ghost,"

**Results:**

19th – Carly: Failure to comply

18th – Liam: Past Imperfect


	9. Unnatural

Day 12

It was an unusually quiet morning. Perhaps it was because of the non-existent beeping of the collars that had made everyone drop their guard. Or perhaps it was just simply too early in the morning. The sun was merely peeking from the horizon and the air was still cold. Or perhaps it was already in the middle of the day, and a storm was coming this way.

Timeless. That's one way to describe the place.

"Hey there...,"

Over by the middle of the garden, sat Tristan who was groaning to himself and still contemplating about what life has in store for him. And as silly as it sounds, a medium-sized hulk of a man such as him was also susceptible to the effects of boredom, emo-ness, and trauma. The thing that constantly haunted him the most was the sudden disappearance of Liam and the rest of the Gang. He groaned again as he tried to remember what drove him to that crowd in the first place. A self-proclaimed black sheep, Tristan was driven to find new friends worthy of his attention. But there were reasons why his old friends disposed of him in the first place. There were also rumours about Tristan' emotional, self-destructive nature-a trait that the Gang have dealt with and tolerated every single time. Their constant friendliness proved to have rubbed on Tristan this time around though.

But The Gang was not here. So instead, Tristan was driven to set his sights on the next person that he saw...or rather, the only person he had been looking at since the day before.

_**Girl #9: Lily-Ann Watson**_

She was just there. Admiring the flowers she had freshly picked and up until that point, no one seemed to have noticed, setting them on Nelia's grave. Of course no one noticed her sobs and weeps of mourning for the first few days. The death of her best friend seemed to have done a number on her. And Tristan, looking from afar, could only imagine himself as this new pillar of hope and comfort.

No one should suffer eleven days alone, he thought.

Tristan stood up, only to sit back down again. It was a common mechanism for men his age: awkwardness. He wasn't just shy, but basically betraying everything that he ever was. He knows about girls well enough that he should know what he should be doing. But every time Lily's face comes into his mind, he just couldn't bring himself to step closer.

He finally gave up though, as he saw Elroy entering the scene. Tristan wasn't close enough to hear the words being exchanged, but he could read the body language so easily: Guy meets girl, girl is thankful for guy being around, guy joins in the sadness of the loss, and guy and girl walk off...together. Then, guy and girl talk some more, whilst going up stairs, then...into the Main Office. That was the last of Lily, Tristan ever saw.

Little did he know, that more sinister things were happening inside that place.

"Okay, let me run that by you again. This time, I'll slow down for your sake. If you can't comprehend what I'm saying then you can just forget it!"

Dirk was the King of the Teacher's Lounge.

He'd single-handedly caught Leo by surprise, tied him up to a chair, and barricaded both of them at the far end of the office, where all the cubicles converged. He snickered, thinking of how ingenious using bits and pieces of cubicle partitions and any file cabinets and furniture that happened to be around was. Dirk rechecked the wall again for the fifty-eighth time, making sure nothing was going to get out or in, before he resumed his tired speech on an even more tired Leo.

"I thought I was dreaming at first, you know? Maybe it was the heat, or maybe it's this solitary confinement thing goin' on. I was going delirious, I told myself. I was trying to make things in my head come true. Maybe!" he screamed. "It was suppose to be a joke. I was just going to scare her...for tearing my DS apart!"

Leo, despite being gagged and beaten to near death, managed to raise an eyebrow. How was this connected to David's death?

"I'm talking about Katrina you fool!" Dirk snapped. I was hiding in the dark, and I wanted to intimidate her with my knife...," Dirk sat behind the barricade in a daze. "...but then she FREAKED! She RAN towards the knife! IT WASN'T MY FAULT!" Dirk paused, interrupting himself. A tiny thud hit the ground from behind the barricade. After five seconds of silence followed, he continued on with his tale...

"BUT I didn't want to make it look like I stabbed her so...I PUSHED her off...making it look like a suicide. But I forgot about the fuckin' ledge at the end of the railing and so she didn't fall all the way until the next morning...where EVERYONE SAW US!"

At this point, Leo felt something sharp close to his hands. Using up the last of his strength, he tried to inch towards it, slowly watching out for Dirk's sudden moves. He stopped as soon as is arms were positioned at just the right angle, and began working a way to cut through the knot.

"So it was me, Mortimer, and David...and I just saw the opportunity, ya know? I used Mortimer's panicked p-p-position to make it look like he killed Katrina and then killed himself! I know I'm not suppose to fix death with death but...it seemed so right at the time. You understand, right? You'd do the same RIGHT?"

Leo could do nothing, but nod in agreement, lest he receive another beating session.

"So you believe ME? That's the TRUTH! It's been eating at me for sometime now. But uhm...about David. I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT! You gotta believe me. Why would I want to kill that guy? Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you? If I didn't kill him then who else would?"

Leo's bonds were cut. He was free.

"None other than David himself! Yeah you heard me! There's no other explanation. You've seen him alone sometimes, talking to himself and whatnot. He's _psycho_ not like me. I was desperate!," But Leo's reaction gave Dirk the ultimate face of tired disappointment. "You don't believe me...after all IVE BEEN THROUGH! FUCK YOU...," Dirk poised himself for another beatdown. "...I'LL BEAT SOME SHIT INTO YOU IF I HAVE TO BUST YOU WIDE OPE-"

The scene was interrupted by screams and yells emanating from outside. Leo and Dirk perplexingly look through the frosted glass windows to no avail. So with nothing but the sense of sound guiding them, they slowly heard the chaos that was slowly unfolding, especially that one voice that seemed to sum everything up in one big shout.

"THE RAID HAS BEGUN!"

Dirk instinctively ducked down, preventing his silhouette from being discovered, as the sound of he and Leo's classmates ran for dear life, screaming in panic. It was like a violent riot outside, set on instant replay over and over again. Through all this sudden stream of madness, Dirk decided to have a change of heart. He huddled in the dark corner with Leo, and didn't move an inch during those long minutes. They were both safe as long as they hide out in the very end of the corridor, which few students barely even recognize. As far as they were concerned, the outside was a very dangerous place now.

The inside though, was another story.

Beyond the barricade, on the other side of this office, a familiar face was back on his feet. The knife, still firmly planted in his head. He somewhat, forced a smile as he looked down on Elroy and Lily's unconscious body.

_Finally, it's our time to shine._

Steven was back from the dead.

_They didn't count on the fact that there were two of us, didn't they._

David on the other hand, was beyond repair.

_My arms...where are my...why can't I feel my arms? Why can't I feel anything?_

The evil seed had hatched the perfect plan from the start, much to David's chagrin. Using Katrina's death as a way of pushing Dirk over the edge, there would be no choice but to implicate him if David was dead, and by severing that personality, Steven could live once more and this time without that tiny thing called conscience.

_I...can't feel a thing! WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?"_

Steven started to feel dizzy though, stumbling left and right, he felt the numbness of death: he didn't know if he was blind, deaf, numb...

_I...I'm getting weaker..._

Or hungry; it didn't matter now. All of a sudden a rush of indigestion forced Steve hand. He slowly reached for the object embedded into his brain matter: the knife. Pulling it out was a most agonizing feeling, simply because Steve felt nothing at all when he knew he should. Now looking down at where Lily lay, an idea flashed before his eyes. It was most definitely taboo, but he forced his own hand just because he could.

_Sustenance...I need sustenance..._

Steven licked his lips and proceeded to masticate his prey.

Day 13

There was no sun today. Thunder roared in the distance.

Joseph was admiring the view from the third floor, with his agents all in a row. Grace was missing and Evelyn was as far away from the Gang as possible. As soon as the rest of the 'prisoners' were locked in containment in one of the classrooms, Joseph congratulated each and every one of his comrades. But he wasn't finished just yet.

"One more to go...," Joseph said as he signalled Juste to release the last prisoner: Regina.

For a moment she stood there, confused. She'd been locked up in a very dark cell for a whole day. And shortly after being told that she was the only one left, she started forming angry tears. There was nothing more she would've wanted than to take Joseph's head off, but the suggestive way Juste held his axe, was saying a different message in effect.

"It's funny," Joseph began, with his usual manner of speech. "I was going to use you as a bargaining chip for Liam. But I guess someone just couldn't handle a blow to the head...,"

Regina said nothing. Joseph continued to gloat.

"You're probably wondering why you're still alive? Well, stop being selfish and wonder why WE are still alive? It's because someone finally took action. These people around me: Juste, Joanna, Ronald, Evelyn," Joseph trailed off, slowly looking over the distance to where Evelyn was sulking. "...they're following me because I make sure someone else takes the fall so we can live one more day! And guess who's next...?"

Regina started running away almost immediately. Juste quickly ran after her, and Joanna followed suit. Joseph merely scoffed at the inevitable. Eventually, the entire building would be locked down under his control, and the fun event can begin: ceremoniously sacrificing the students in the classrooms one by one, long enough for Evelyn to figure out a way to get out. And that was what Evelyn was really for. She had a knack for figuring things out. But now she has no choice but to, thanks to Joseph.

BEEP...BEEP...

Ronald flinched for the first time since his coming to Faura.

BEEEP...BEEEEP...BEEEEP

Evelyn was just as shocked. Of all the days for this to happen, Joseph was next!

BEEEEEEEP...BEEEEEEEEP...

"Hurr hurr hurr hurr HURRRR!" Joseph maniacally laughed out loud. "It's finally here, huh? Judgement day," he calmly said to himself. He could not help but still mock Evelyn from where he was standing. "How's the view from up there?" Joseph said to her "I'm sure you're going to miss the way I've been pulling the strings around here...hurr hurr hurr!"

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...

The beeping suddenly stopped. It was over. The collar fell to the ground...busted wide open.

"WHAT?" Evelyn cried. "How did you-"

"Hurr hurr...," Joseph said as he revealed his silver trump card:

_**Item #19: Collar Key**_

"And just for the record," he smugly said as he teasingly approached Evelyn and jiggled her collar. "I knew it the whole time,"

Meanwhile, in one of the garden terraces...

"Don't make this any harder than it already is, Regina!"

She peered across the open area from the shadows. She had no weaponry, no form of fighting back. Even if she managed to elude Joanna, what's to stop her from evading an axe-wielding Juste?

"I'm really sorry about this," Jo sheepishly said. "I'm just, afraid of death and all. When you consider weighing every option, this would seem the most logical-"

A thud signalled Regina to come out of her hiding place and face death. Instead she finds a crippled Joanna. Her body was on the ground and her head was bleeding. The wound looked severe, and it looked like she never saw it coming. Upon closer inspection, Regina finally found the culprit: a nest egg. It was a most surreal point of view. The wind, which had been reeling itself in for some time now, had forced this tiny piece of shell to tip over at the exact moment and place that Joanna was in, instantly killing her.

Regina turned to run, but now directly in front of her was Juste with axe in hand. Slowly the uneasiness returned. She braced herself for the moment of truth: when she can finally join Liam.

But the wind simply blew harder.

As Juste was about to make his lunge, a patch of grass blew in his face, causing him to trip over a simple anthill and fall onto his own axe. Juste bled for awhile, still freakishly being able to move...until he finally rested where he lay.

Regina opened her eyes, and realized a pattern forming. And who was her mind to deny the only possible explanation there was. The brokenness of her psyche could not possibly comprehend any other explanation other than that a higher force has telling her that it was simply not her time yet. It was a matter of retribution. It was the balance of life and death.

For as long as her friends' murderers were not dead, she could not be killed.

And with that in mind, she left the scene instantly after the rain started pouring in. She disappeared right after the storm began, as she slowly started biding her time. Joseph would be up against some nasty odds now.

The rest was fate.

**Results**:

17th – Lily: Hunger Pains

16th – Joanna: Forces of Nature

15th – Juste: Lady Fate takes her first


	10. Clash

"It's over."

Joseph surveyed the landscape as he triumphantly pushed away Evelyn's limp body onto one of the storm drains. He silently congratulated himself for manipulating the pieces right, finishing the game with nary a scar on him. It was easy enough to deceive everyone, and then steal their hopes and dreams away by swallowing the only key to the collars.

From there, Joseph had automatically become a trophy to be sought. Wars were waged and friendships were broken just for his sole survival. For the most part, he hid from them back at his favourite utility closet. Of course Ronald never made it because he was instantly persecuted for being Joseph's accomplice. But Joseph didn't care anymore. Since the whole fiasco with Charles and Richard, he was convinced of how human nature can be so easily manipulated given the circumstances.

Killing Evelyn was the hardest part, which wasn't really much. All he had to do was finish her off with whatever weapons he easily found lying around. There were shards of broken glass and metal all over the place. When the fighting stopped, Benjamin Hall was a broken battlefield and Evelyn was on all fours pointing to the sky.

Where was her god now?

And it was there did Joseph end her. Slashing- or was it strangling...he didn't know anymore. He wasn't certain but there was some kicking and resistance involved. The job was done a long time ago. Game over.

"Izz not overyet bitch!"

A lone figure made itself visible from one of the thought-to-be-empty classrooms. It was hard to figure out who he was because of all the smoke and smell of fire and brimstone. Two things were very certain though: his pearly white smile, which seemed to stretch maniacally from ear to ear, and a glisteningly long samurai sword protruding from his right hand side. The voice though, was unmistakably obvious:

"You're just LAME!"

Dirk.

Joseph didn't flinch and stood his ground. His tradeMarcus smile made an appearance once again as Dirk was too obsessed with his newfound samurai sword to realize what Joseph had left under his sleeve.

"I was going to slice people up with this thing I found in one of the secret stashes," Dirk began. "But then you already killed everyone else. Hehehehehh...," Dirk's eyes locked onto Joseph now, as his mouth ran on its own. "Guess who's next?"

"Hm," Joseph scoffed. "Do you know what day it is, Dirk?"

And as if on cue, the infallible plot device of death made itself known once more.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Dirk froze in place. How careless could he have been?

"It's the _last_ day." Joseph declared, permanently sealing Dirk's fate.

"RAAAGH!" Broken rage overwhelmed Dirk as he tossed his words aside and lunged forward. As Dirk did this however, he hadn't actually considered wielding the sword and didn't account for its realistic weight. This prompted him to fall faster than usual. Joseph began heading upstairs in order to stall for time.

BEEP BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEE-

"Time's running out hahahahah," Joseph teased.

"Shut up!" Dirk argued as he got back up and left the sword in the grass. He quickly grabbed some of the lighter glass shards and began throwing them in Joseph's direction.

"Shit," Joseph cussed to himself as the jagged edges narrowly missed him, with one of the shards nearly impaling his face and instead gashing him on the right cheek. He quickly slumped down behind a pillar to nurse his wound, and silently count down to the collar's demise. He tried to shut out everything Dirk was shouting until he realized the voices began getting stronger and stronger.

He was now right beside him.

BEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEP

Before Joseph could make a run for it, Dirk grabbed him by the shoulders and hit him with a strong right hook and pin him to the ground. Joseph was now half-awake, struggling for his very life on the deep conscious end. Every nerve in his body, from the twitches in his fingers, to the pang in his stomach was begging for his adrenaline to kick in. Dirk immediately assumed the position and began strangling his downed victim. Joseph tried kicking away but Dirk was simply too heavy.

It would've been nice to die painlessly and immediately at this point. It would've been the greatest run in any student's life at this point. But Joseph had to have to dishonour of looking directly at the winner as he did. The gag reflex caused by the forceful choking kept Joseph awake in an open-eyed, deeply breathing trance. Every second passed was extremely painful, and Dirk himself relished the moments.

That's what hurt the most.

"Die faster!" Dirk pleaded, about to cut it close with the infernal beeping around his neck. "JUST DIE!"

Surely, those last few moments were the most agonizing. Surely, Joseph looked on in excruciating agony, and try as he might to break free it was no use.

It was too late.

"Hey..."

Or was it too soon?

"HEY..."

All the numbness dissipated at the command of that one booming voice. His eyes opened, his posture straightened up, and his mouth engulfed the surrounding air. It certainly wasn't Dirk's voice that woke him up so suddenly. And it certainly wasn't a death knell. The pain was still there however, albeit lower than the throat area. Was it the chest now...?

"...WAKE UP!" 

SLAM went the fist down on his chest as he regained consciousness and unfortunately searing pain. Fortunately, it was one of those moments where he was glad to be able to feel something. It was hard to explain it but he felt a sense of endearing joy from surviving his nightmare. He was still alive, that was the good news.

"Oh thank god. I thought you were gone as well,"

The bad news: he was still alive.

No sooner did he come into consciousness of his surroundings did the hard edge of reality bite him back as well. He was in a game, a mad killing game of epic proportions. There were collars, deaths, tricks and puzzles, bells and whistles in play. He remembered living to see those things, watching from afar, observing them. He remembered having a plan of some sort to escape from all this mess...

"Dude, I don't mean to alarm you but you just fell off some twelve meters. The trees saved your fall but I think the rocks below must've been what knocked you out. You've just been lying around here for days. Kind of a miracle. Somewhat cool," the voice of reason paused for a minute as he tried catching his breath. It took a short while before he continued in a slightly panicky tone. "...shit, this is harder than I thought. How am I supposed to-"

Of course: His escape plan to use the cellular phone to try and reach out. Marcus could barely make out what he was thinking as his senses were still in a daze. He could barely see anything save for a fuzzy outline of his supposed rescuer.

_**Boy #21: Vic Worthy**_

"The Cell Phone. I almost forgot about it...," Marcus finally said. "...was I able to...?"

No response.

"I remember dialling the number, but the bars on it were kinda low. Did you find...?" he asked weakly.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Marcus. But we have to get out of here first. Something's going to go down and we don't want to be caught in the crossfire when it happens! So...can you move or not? Come on, we have to go now!"

"Wait," Marcus blurted. "I had a dream. Joseph and Dirk were the last two people standing. And...god, I-it felt like a nightmare...,"

Marcus's eyes widened in horror at the very words he was about to say.

"...Dirk was clearly winning!"

Day 13

It's been raining for a long while now. Vic had mentioned something about a typhoon passing by days ago. He simply shrugged soon after and chalked it up to despair. Days were irrelevant now. With the power out, and the sky unchanging in hue and colour, it was nigh impossible to tell the time, or how many days it's been.

For some reason, even if Marcus distinctly remembered falling back first, his forehead was bleeding when he woke up. In his mind, he tried to picture the many ways his body must've contracted and contorted as gravity did its dirty work, slamming his lifeless ragdoll self against the bark and branches of the world's most red-ant-infested tree. Realizing that other parts may have been broken, Marcus shrivelled back in disgust as he just focused on getting his legs to work for the time being, with a little help from Vic of course. He wished he wouldn't have to guess which body part was working for the moment and which was.

On the way upstairs, there wasn't a single soul in sight. Vic trudged on, slinging Marcus's arm over his shoulder, seemingly aware of this fact. It looked like the place had truly seen better days now, as the faint smell of blood filled Marcus's nostrils. And he could've sworn-or maybe it was just his imagination- that if he tried hard enough he could also smell fire and brimstone emanating from around the corner somehow.

But that scent was immediately overruled by the most pungent of smells, as it attacked Marcus's nose. The clincher was that it smelled _so_ familiar.

"It's urine," Vic said, reading Marcus's facial expression. "Peeing on the mattress deters any intruders," The horrid smell reached its peak as the pair neared one of the rooms at the very end of the hallway. "Took me awhile to drag the mattress here...but it was worth it. These days, you can just steal things around here if no one sees you. That is, if no one catches you and tries to kill you,"

Marcus was confused at what Vic had just said. _Try_ to kill? They've actually succeeded? Vic had just said it as if it were nothing. Has _he_ killed as well?

"I got food that'll last us another week or so...once again, if we're lucky."

"You've got to be kidding me. How long was I knocked out?" Marcus forcibly chuckled, trying to hide his bleeding gums. "You've all gone insane. Everything was still in one piece when I last left this place."

Vic sighed in exasperation. "Things have changed around here. Joseph is turning into desperation-"Vic was interrupted by Marcus's sudden attention to detail: another person had appeared within their radar.

Over the distance she stood, just staring into blank space. Her glasses were completely shattered, yet she still wore the frames as if nothing was broken. Her tattered skirt blew in the general direction of the wind, slowly getting caught up in the torrents of air and debris once in awhile. Honestly her whole image felt like watching some kind of demented perfume commercial in slow motion.

"RE-" Marcus's mouth was immediately covered up by Vic's palm as he pulled him over into the nearby utility closet. Even though Vic was smaller in size, he still managed to pin Marcus down on the corner by the shelf full of cleaning detergents. Marcus squirmed as the stronger smell of urine and Vic's inadvertent cutting off of his air supply caught him by surprise. After a minute of restraint, Vic soon gave his words of warning:

"You do not call Regina, OKAY! Nobody calls her, talks to her, or even looks at her. She's _PSYCHO_!" Marcus calmed down as his oxygen started to regulate, and could only gasp at what Vic was trying to tell him. "It's kind of hard to explain...," Vic mused. "...but for now, just leave her alone. You can do that, right?" Vic pleaded.

Finally Marcus managed to wrestle Vic's arm away as he sat up in protest. "Did something happen to her?" It only took a few seconds of guessing before noticing something was amiss. "Liam's missing..."

"Dead," Vic declared, beginning to become accustomed to finishing Marcus's sentences for him. "I don't know if you were awake when you saw what Holly did to Charles when Richard died but in this case it's exactly the same,"

"But we didn't kill Liam. Or did _you_ kill him," Marcus recoiled as Vic raised an eyebrow is assurance. With the way things looked, there could be dozens of other that could've done it. Vic was definitely not on that list.

"How would you feel if you lost the love of your life in a deadly game of 'kill or be killed'?"

"I've seen her kill people, okay?" Vic continued. "Joanna and Juste are dead because of her. Everyone thinks its batshit insane but I don't see them trying to get near her. She did it man, she's got some kind of...," Vic trailed off, feeling his credibility failing. "...weapon,"

"Then let's take her down together. Without killing her I mean," Marcus jokingly concluded.

"I wish...," Vic said to himself. He slowly poked his head out of the doorway, carefully not bringing any attention to himself. "...but it's impossible,"

She was gone.

Vic sighed in relief as Marcus squirmed in the closet, attempting to get comfortable. He couldn't help but feel bored out of his skull. "So now what?" Marcus asked.

"I think there's a first aid kit around here. We could try patching up that eye of yours," Marcus could've sworn he heard it right, as Vic said it almost _too_ quickly.

"My what?"

"How's the eye, Marcus?" Vic immediately responded.

"My...," but just before Vic could finish his sentence yet again, his hand was already running itself over to where his left eyebrow was. Vic didn't say anything as he proceeded to lock the utility closet door shut and grab the nearest piece of cloth he could find. Marcus's hand was now over his left eye.

Or at least, what was left of it.

"JOSEPH!"

Meanwhile, by the central atrium Evelyn stood by the eye of the storm. Nobody exactly knew where the open-aired Atrium began and ended, so when she gazed around the place it seemed like it could be a vast battlefield. The storm wasn't helping either, as it blurred her vision even more with what seemed to be the bastard some of fog and malevolent breeze. For a minute, a sliver of sanity popped into her mind: "Why am I out here? Why am I drenched in rainwater and the blood of others?" and as quick witted she was to always have an answer to everything, she proceeded to pique her own curious nature with an answer of her own:

"I know you're here, Joseph. I'm here to talk a deal. I've got Ronald with me right now,"

True enough, Ronald was present and accounted for. He was gagged with what seemed to be a torn sleeve, and tied up with extension cord wires behind his back. But he was there, nonetheless.

Evelyn didn't need to wait any longer. It was obvious she was fed up of waiting, of not saying anything until things were too late. And in her mind she could only imagine the amount of value she is able to redeem if she can only get that last piece of the puzzle.

"Give us the key, Joseph...or your codebreaker dies!"

Only when she gets the collar key can she find herself in the arms of her friends again. Then everyone will listen to her just like before...just like it's always been. Ronald squirmed and shook the rag in his mouth free. He tried to scream but the cold rain had already caused his entire face to numb, as he fell forward on his knees onto the lawn. Teary-eyed and tired, he was obviously in pain on the inside, and begging to be freed. Evelyn said nothing. She had already blocked out the disciplinary acts a long time ago.

Lightning flashed a minute later, momentarily revealing Joseph entering from the other side. Evelyn sighed a breathe of relief. Her bluff had actually worked.

"So you've found Ronald...?" Joseph managed to say, his voice no longer the playfully sadistic leader he once was. If Evelyn didn't know any better, she could've sworn Joseph had turned inherently evil.

As soon as Joseph appeared, Ronald quickly threw the last of his energies in his direction, shouting with all his might: "JOSEPH! What are you waiting for? I don't want to die! Just let me go already. I don't want to get hurt anymore!

It was barely audible, but it was there, and it was unavoidably annoying as it was pitiful. Evelyn shrivelled inside, starting to slip on her conscience. Perhaps it was wrong for her to try and stoop down to the unscrupulous villain. Perhaps it was just better to have gone and played by Joseph's rules for a bit longer.

"JOSEPH!"

Perhaps she was mistaken.

"JOSEEEEEEPH!"

Over at Joseph's side, he was alone. The key was still strung around his neck, and in his hands were two things. One was a "parting gift" he had stolen from a corpse way back in the first few days of the game:

_**Item #30: Pocket Watch**_

And the other...was Grace's pistol.

"JOOOOO-"

Bang. The noise was gone.

Evelyn jumped back, completely taken by surprise.

"I don't need some stupid code to live. Trading a codebreaker for the answer? That's the stupidest bargain you've made yet!"

Joseph stepped forward now, refusing to drop his aim. Evelyn stepped backward, attempting to reach for something in the rain.

"Oh, maybe you knew it's cos' me and Ronald are close and all that I'd feel some kind of sympathy...is that it? Was I suppose to fall for that? You are sadly mistaken, Evelyn! Your negotiation skills FAIL!"

"AAAAAGGGHHH!"

Suddenly, something brushed Joseph's side and pushed him to the ground. It made no attempts to knock him further down and proceeded to disarm him, wrestling the gun out of his hand. Evelyn ran as fast as she could at this opportunistic turn of events. The gun was all over the place now, swinging back and forth between the aggressive attacker, and Joseph. After several seconds of rolling on the grass, he finally came face to face with his assailant.

"K...kill ME!

Grace.

"CARLY'S GONE! LIFE IS MEANINGLESS NOW!"

Her broken banshee-like screams didn't debilitate Joseph one bit. Her small frame was nothing compared to the adrenaline of hatred Joseph was feeling right now, as he simply pushed her away. Picking himself up, Grace attempted to run him down again but this time Joseph was ready as he pistol whipped her squarely on the jaw.

"Umph...hic...hic...hhhuuh...,"

Grace was down in a fetal position, her head at an angle. She was breathing but it was faint and rapidly pacing to a stop. She was crying her heart out in the rain as it poured on and soaked her in her own blood, which was already trickling down her mouth.

"BITCH!" Joseph shouted before turning his attention at Evelyn, who had her own trick up her sleeve.

"Now!" Evelyn shouted as Albert cranked the valve on the fire cabinet, forcing out a strong jet stream of water pushing Joseph out of the way, and knocking off the key pendant a few meters away from where Evelyn stood. Joseph was blind now, as he tried to get up, only to slip and slide on the mud patch he had fallen into. He shouted something incomprehensible while waving his gun in random directions. This was the opportunity Evelyn had been waiting for.

BEEP. BEEP.

Joseph squinted. Evelyn's heart skipped a beat.

BEEP BEEEEEP BEEEEEE...

Evelyn quickly turned in horror to see Albert's collar activate itself. He was next. At the same distance in the other side, Joseph was getting his bearings back and his gun was pointed in the proper direction...at Evelyn.

"No...no...why now?"

The key was in plain sight. It was now or never as Jan ran past Evelyn, who had grabbed a nearby shiny rock from one of the garden fixtures.

BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.

It was now or never. Someone had to die.

The rest was just flashes of desperation now: a shot was fired. Evelyn remembered ducking down and releasing her grip on the stone. The projectile had struck Jan as he fell mere inches from the key. For awhile, he attempted to grab it as he crawled a few more centimetres on the ground, ignoring the pain at the back of his neck.

"Show yourself, Evelyn!"

He could feel the outline of a cylindrical shape on the face of his palm as he closed it into a fist. Slowly, Albert tried to turn and sit up, but his muscles refused to respond. His eyelids were getting heavy as well and soon, as he saw his own pool of blood inches from his face, he realized it was the end.

Evelyn just stood there close to one of the pillars, shocked at what she had done. With the noise gone, Joseph muddled off in retreat, clutching onto what he thought was his own key but was just a small pebble of the same shape. The rain had also calmed down a bit now, as the haze gradually dissipated into thin air. Taking a few steps closer, Evelyn could only laugh at what she had done: the smooth rock she had thrown at Albert...had inadvertently hit the larger panel at the back of his collar. The rock had deactivated the collar.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the only thing deactivated.

**Results:**

14th - Ronald: Kill the Noise

13th - Albert: ZOMG IM NEXT!


	11. Wanton

Dirk wearily swatted Leo's hand away as he lay in his deathbed; a pile on unchecked exam papers and other paraphernalia. The two could only groan at what they had to do to keep themselves alive for what seemed like five days now, maybe more. Food was beginning to get scarce.

"Uhh...," Leo faked, attempting to digest the scribbled note pages for the umpteenth time.

Ever since the power went out, the offices were the last place anyone would ever choose to be in. The combined heat generated from the lack of ventilation and the fact that there was just a wooden door separating all the gore was still safer than the outside world, for with each day that's passed Dirk and Leo always heard something new. It was sickening and disheartening. The two could only imagine what was really happening.

The time when the two were feuding had come and gone a long time ago. Now, it was all about survival in the barricade of cubicles they have so conveniently formed within the heart of it all. The last of their days had been spent on various conversations of what may or may not be of philosophical randomness.

"You think there's a God, Dirk? Why is this happening to us?" Leo asked, nibbling on a binder.

"So we're going to talk about that, are we? That's just great. It's also lame," Dirk unenthusiastically said. Even his catchphrase has lost its flair.

"Yeah," Leo agreed. "Whatever. I guess if it's God's will for us to go then...yeah...,"

Their Zen moment was interrupted though by some mild thumping noises emanating from the barricade. Both remained still. They couldn't get up even if they wanted to. "Oh god, He's finally here," Dirk managed to say underneath all his heavy breathing. "You locked the door, right?"

"Huh? I thought you bolted that door..."

"Son of a-"

Come to think of it, they didn't even bother pushing anything heavier than some chairs on the door itself. Their attempts at concealing themselves off quickly was met with latent idiocy as the door swung open just as easily as it had before.

"David." Leo said, pointing out the obvious. "WHAZZAP?"

Steve said nothing as he loomed closer and closer. Dirk himself almost gagged those crumpled papers back up his throat, as the sight of David himself as he was covered in blood and smelled something like a dead animal. But the most horrible sight was what David had been holding this whole time.

"What the hell is that? Is that a hand?"

Sure enough, Lily's severed arm dangled on the side of David's torso. The two didn't even want to think what had gone on in the other room. Leo wasn't ready to surrender yet as he dug deep into his pockets and triumphantly brought out what mystery item he had been holding this whole time:

_**Item #21: Ball Point Pen**_

They're dead meat.

"How 'bout you, Dirk? You got anything useful on ya?"

"You mean this?" Dirk cynically said as he brought out the 'My Girlfriend' picture. But before Leo could make a snide comment, David abruptly stopped in his tracks. His head slowly twisted towards Dirk's direction like a robot and stared long and hard at the girl in the photo...

_...Sheila? _

"OHMYGOD," Dirk finally managed to say. "THAT'S what this picture was for? Then that must mean...God wanted David to kill three people and then himself, somehow scare us into locking ourselves here, to eat nothing but paper, and then find the meaning of life?"

The room was eerily silent for awhile. Dirk felt uneasily chilled by his own words.

"You're an idiot. Pull it together!"

Dirk didn't need a second clue to realize what was going on. He dropped the picture on the ground and just as expected, David easily let them by as he went down on his knees and caressed the picture with his hands. Dirk and Leo ran past several rooms before stopping at the foyer. The reception area was blood red all over, and the bodies that used to be strung up all over the place were now in even less desirable chunks of matter.

"You killed him! You KILLED HIM!"

A voice emanated from the furthest corner, along with some unsettling sounds of two objects being hit repetitively. As much as Dirk wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, he was too scared to go out alone and Leo was just curious. The voice was so familiar.

"Tristan? That you?"

"LILYYYY...," He was sobbing now, as Leo rounded the corner and found him, lying in a pool of mixed blood. His face was covered in it, but the splatters were more focused on his arms and legs...and another body.

It was Elroy.

"I saw them...," Tristan muttered to no one in particular, "They went in here. They were gone the longest time. And and Lily was dead doon after," Leo didn't need to hear the end of it. He didn't know what to do now that his curiosity had gotten the better of him, but before he could even extend his hand at Tristan, he snapped back at him. "LEAVE ME ALONE! I need to find her...,"

"Leo, that's enough!" Dirk called out, his right hand twitching the doorknob loose. "You heard him. Let's go," A few seconds pass at the air of fright overtook Dirk, refusing to peek behind his shoulder for David might suddenly jump out like a bad horror movie cliché. "Oh, fuck this," Taking a deep breath, Dirk twisted the knob open and stepped out into the open. The very first thing that met him was the afternoon breeze of a post-typhoon experience. The very next thing however was Joseph bumping into him.

"YOU!" Joseph quickly responded. "I've been looking all over for you...," It was the only thing Joseph had been missing up until this point. Dirk had disappeared from his radar since he had first planned to strike from above. But now it seems that he had landed right into his sights.

"Hey Joseph!" Dirk amiably said. "I've figured it all out. David was the one who killed Katrina!,"

"Uh-huh," Joseph smiled wryly. "I know...,"

"What?"

"I saw it all, you noob. From up there...I saw it all...," he explained, motioning his hand towards the top floor of all places. "I wanted you to get persecuted so I wouldn't have to deal with you when I put my plan into action. But now that you're here...," A click reassured Joseph's ability to shoot on sight. "See you in hell!"

Feeling a sense of déjà-vu, Dirk quickly shoved Joseph and ran in the opposite direction. Joseph stumbled backwards, attempting to regain his balance, only to bump into someone instead.

"What the-"

Joseph was impressed. He didn't expect an old friend to show up still alive.

"Regina...heheheh...," Joseph noted her drastic change in appearance, as well as her shattered look. "The last time we spoke you were suppose to die... Looks like you've seen better days, huh?"

She said nothing.

And neither did Joseph. He wasn't about to try and say something smart so that another person or object might obscure his view or stop him from firing. He was going to kill somebody, and that somebody was Regina now.

Click click click...

"Huh?"

Clickity-clickity-click...

"Another one? Grrr...,"

Ka-CHAK.

Joseph couldn't believe himself. His own gun had jammed thrice in the last three chambers of bullets. The chances of that happening were astronomical. He tried everything: slapped his hand on it many times, shook it around alot, and even cursing at it. Nothing. But by then it was already too late. Regina was already two feet closer to Joseph."Wha-" But before Joseph could say anything, Regina quickly took the gun off of Joseph's hands and pulled the trigger on him.

BANG!

"No...way...," Joseph mumbled, as he backed away from Regina and grasped his now bloodied stomach. "An extra...bullet...?" Joseph fell backwards on the ground, saying something else before finally dying from his wounds. Regina dropped the pistol immediately after, and continued on in her monotonous walk through the empty corridors, until she too also disappeared from view.

Over the distance on the other side of the hallway, Mark was watching intently on the events that have unfolded. He couldn't believe his own eyes.

"Regina...,"

He had never grinned so creepily his whole life.

"...I'd love to see what she can do next!"

**Results:**

12th - Elroy: Misplaced Aggression

11th - Joseph: No Way Out


	12. Happenstance

_A/N: Sorry about the last one being so short. Been really on the edge coz of some stressful events. I'm making it up though so enjoy this. Thanks all for reading and I hope you're having a great time._

Marcus could not believe it for himself, but it was right in front of him: Regina had just manipulated the powers that be, and somehow won a dangerous game of Russian roulette. Everything was falling in slow motion to him, as he attempted to process what had just happened. Benjamin Hall had never been so chaotic to him since Grace's trigger-finger stunt on Daniel days and days before.

And it was nothing like the movies either! Getting shot looked painful to watch, and even more painful to stomach. The numbness in his own left eye seemed to resonate with the pain Joseph was feeling. Those tight seconds where Joseph was gasping for air as he finally lay down dead were the worse seconds of anyone's life. In that light, the exploding collars would've been a more appropriate execution than this! Joseph may have been a bad seed (or so Marcus's been told by Vic), but nobody deserved to die this way-in a manner beyond cold blood. But such was the nature of the message, from Regina; Lady Luck herself.

"...I'd love to see what she can do next!"

Marcus turned his head as he saw Alex, seemingly hovering over and alongside him on the 2nd floor balcony. He was still as he had last seen him: calm and concerned though one can't help but look at his twitching pair of hands as they still held on to that bible of his, as if it were a protection charm. Marcus said nothing but his mind raced with all the possible arguments. How could Alex think this was any good? How could he suddenly marvel at death by our own hands in cold blood? And then as if Alex had read his mind, he slowly turned to him and continued to pick his brain.

"She can eliminate the competition for us."

Marcus slowly turned towards Alex, carefully watching Regina make any sudden moves, and attempted to process what took so much ease for Alex to say.

"Competition? Have you all lost it? This is Regina we're talking about!"

Alex raised an eyebrow as he tried to make things more clear to him, "She has 'evolved' into the perfect killer: no remorse, no emotion, and no regrets. And this 'chance factor' she seems to carry with her...it's simply amazing, don't you agree?" Alex paused a bit, as he continued on with his rhetoric banter. "And when she's done cleaning up...or until she is downed by the other psychotics out there, WE shall pick up the pieces and end her ourselves!"

"Wh—what! You and me? Us? You've got to be kidding me!"

"Why? Because you're the sanest person here? Because you can't remember what happened in those 24 hours of pain? I'm not insane. I'm the smartest person to have played this game right. I stayed out of everyone's way and the cabin fever set in...,"

Marcus glanced at that holy book of faith. It was still in pristine condition despite everything. Alex must've been hiding out all this time, watching the chaos unfold from his little hiding space. He couldn't help but feel slightly envious in the offset chance that God may have been watching over him. Alex may have been ignorant, but at least he had the heart to. Marcus felt mad for no reason, as the thought of a selfish coward projected into Alex's character. How dare he sit things out and let time do the work for him! What was it all to him, a game?

"I know what you're thinking, Marcus," Alex said as if on cue. "That I'm a bad guy for pretending, for not really doing anything. Well, I'm alive and well. And you know it too...you were trying to call for help at one point were you not? When were you planning to tell us _that_ plan, huh?"

Marcus wanted to say nothing, but couldn't resist feeding the flames, as he came up with the one answer that could easily fry Alex's logical mind: "So what's going to happen when it's just down to us? "

"Nothing," was the swift reply of Vic, who had just come out of the storage closet to spot Alex and Marcus having their little showdown. "Nothing's going to happen, because that's not what's going to happen...we're getting out of this place." And faster than Alex could mockingly say 'oh, let's just stroll out of here and EXPLODE!', Vic held up a very familiar device for him to see.

It was an unlocked collar.

"I took this one off when I found his unconscious body," Vic casually said, nodding in Marcus's direction as he slowly got the message and started to grasp his own neck.

There was nothing there.

"Nothing personal, but I had to disarm it for fear of setting it off...that would've drawn Joseph to my attention. And I didn't want that happening," Vic answered as if reading Marcus's mind. "And I can take off yours too, Alex. And we can just walk out of here unscathed," While Vic's smugness may have passed Marcus's motive radar, Alex wasn't so quick to judge. For one, how could he have the key that Joseph had been wearing around his neck for the past half month? And why was he doing this just now?

"Where did you get the key?" Alex said, once again raising an eyebrow of curiosity.

"I made it," Vic simply said. "I copied it off of Joseph's original,"

"With what?"

"These,"

_**Item #12: First Aid Kit**_

_**Item #10: Chewing Gum**_

_**Item #6: Lighter**_

"I nicked the key off of him at one point, made sure Ronald wasn't looking, and stuck it in a wad of chewing gum which I had been accumulating on for the past week. Then I used the plaster from the first aid kit we scavenged of that dead laptop kid to create a mould of my own, and eventually an exact replica of the key. It works, you can see that now, I even tested it on myse-,"

"Wait...so you were with Joseph and Ronald at one point? You're with them! This 'raid' was part of it, wasn't it? You anticipated this, didn't you? Then you somehow backstabbed Joseph and let him take care of Ronald and himself...yeah, that must be it. I knew something was definitely up with you..."

And that was it. As Vic sighed and refused to listen to the rest of the pretentiousness spewing from Alex's lips. The somewhat shady deus ex machina had finally been unfolded and revealed thanks to Alex's line of questioning. And Vic hoped it wouldn't have come to this, but now he would have to waste more time explaining himself lest he risk anymore backstabbings to occur.

"Yes yes...I was with Joseph and Ronald on the third floor. I was with them since the beginning, scavenging the items of the other participants, and hoarding them for our own use. Eventually, Joseph started to crack under pressure. I don't know, maybe it was the hopelessness of the situation or maybe it was the realization that if we could hoard things underneath their noses then we can do anything. But after that day when Grace threatened to shoot Daniel, Joseph saw that hint of violent potential we were beginning to develop, and he believed we were above it,"

Vic stopped a second and looked at Marcus who was now feeling rather stupid. He decided it would be best to leave out that one important detail before carefully narrating his case.

"Joseph had this plan to kill everyone with an alliance of people who were beginning to break from the fatigue and the shock that the recent killings have caused, and sought to wipe out everyone else on the other side. Ronald, being the sheep that he was, merely nodded in agreement and followed him blindly. And I must admit, at one point I also did fall for it. But it wasn't until The Gang's dissolution that made me think twice about things. I stayed behind during the final day of operations. My task was supposedly, to kill the only man who was capable of stopping Joseph: Dirk."

Marcus made a somewhat inaudible coughing sound, as he choked on his own saliva. It sounded like he was about to laugh at that notion.

"Hey, don't ask me why Joseph thought Dirk was a threat, you got me there too. The plan was to set up the murders and frame Dirk for it, and I was suppose to assassinate him in the offices where they quarantined him and some other suspects. But I was surprised to see that Mortimer and David were already dead. So I retreated to the storage room and watched the events unfold. Not too long after that, I found you, Marcus. And I decided, to have a change of heart after everything that's happened."

"Right," Alex definitively said. "So suddenly, you just turned good at the most _convenient _moment. So why didn't you just announce to everyone that you had a key? It would've saved us ALL the trouble leading up to this point."

Vic furrowed his brow. He pretended to remain keen on explaining things but his mind's eye wandered off to Marcus's observation of the events below. Regina had resurfaced into view. Her presence sent a chill up Vic's spine for some reason. She was just there, looking up into nothing, waiting...

"Hey! Answer me already! You got something to hide or what?"

"Ugh," Vic grunted, as he spoke a little bit faster now. "I couldn't get the key until much later, when I found out what the key actually _was_. And as for why I only planned on using it now well...," Vic made sure no one else was looking, before reaching for one of his pockets and slowly bringing out a small thin chalk-like object somewhat resembling Joseph's key. He looked on at Regina's direction one more time before resuming his explanation. "With the pack of chewing gum I hoarded, I managed to make a mould of sorts, heating it up with the lighter once in awhile. Then I 'borrowed' the key for awhile and copied the shape. After days and days of waiting, the gum had finally hardened, and I was able to use the First Aid Kit's plaster powder to make a new key from the mould,"

"Way to go, McGyver," Alex sarcastically commented.

"This key is _extremely _fragile so I was very reluctant to use it on anything else other than myself. If it had a chance to break then, warning everyone would've caused another uprising. Think about it," Vic sighed in relief as Alex slowly started nodding to the notion. "I used it on Marcus coz' he's the sanest guy around here: he fell off that tree and wasn't involved in the war against Joseph so I KNOW I can trust him. I mean, even Evelyn's gone postal. Go figure,"

Vic didn't know how ironic he was sounding for at that very moment, Evelyn was down below and on her knees, crawling and clawing her way to Albert's lifeless body. Broken images of how she stoned him to death passed her as she kept her eyes on the prize. Her focus was down to the wire as she desperately tried getting Albert's closed fist open, but it was too late. The rigor mortis had set in, permanently sealing the collar key within his palm. Evelyn grumbled as she cursed under her breath. She was so close! And yet amidst everything, she was still alive...but for how much longer?

As Evelyn struggled to pick herself up, she had only then realized that her whole body had gone numb, save for her legs which was beginning to gather into a very painful sensation: her whole lower body was beginning to cramp up! Evelyn rolled over on her back, as she forced her aching arms to sit herself up and push herself back and away from Regina, who was beginning to loom towards her. A mixture of sweat and tears began forming over Evelyn's forehead as she struggled to remain calm and escape.

As one of her hands slipped, another one managed to catch her just in time. Evelyn turned her neck to spot Jared, dragging her with both hands. At first she was relieved but soon felt the cramps settling in as a whole new wave of pain engulfed Evelyn. It didn't help that half of her body was also being jerked in conjunction with the friction caused by the dirt and pebbles on the ground. It was like being scrubbed by a big prickly brush-no TWO prickly brushes-sandwiching her into submission. After almost losing consciousness, Evelyn blinked again and saw Regina at a mere three feet in front of her. Evelyn's heartbeat raced, but it sounded louder to her instead of faster. Time was once again slowing down and Evelyn was running out of options.

"Shitshitshitshit," Jared panicked, as he let go of Evelyn's right hand. "You're on your own! I'm outta he—"

But before Jared could run away, Evelyn reflexes were quick enough to not let go of him with her other hand. There were a few grunts here and there, but time-as still as it was-would not permit any further conversation. Evelyn would shift her weight as she grabbed Jared's hand with her own other free hand and fling him forward. The sheer force caused by Evelyn's own centre of gravity, and the fact that Jared was completely caught off-guard was enough for him to stumble forwards...right into Regina's welcoming arms.

Jared was speechless. Hugging Regina tighter, he struggled to move, but was surprised at his instant paralysis. Slowly, Regina's arm enveloped him like a human iron maiden. The feeling was warm, almost motherly, as Jared started to feel weak and succumb to the sweet embrace. He couldn't help but feel tired all of a sudden, and started closing his eyes.

Regina tightened her embrace.

Jared suddenly screamed in pain. He found himself involuntarily shaking in agony, as he finally felt a very sharp object protruding from Regina's other hand and straight into his right gut: a glass shard from the nearby broken window. Jared had just ran straight into her makeshift knife!

Evelyn could do nothing but turn away in fear. The realization that she wasn't going to be next calmed her somewhat, and brought the familiar feeling back to her legs. Slowly, she backed up into one of the nearby classrooms and hid.

As Jared slowly struggled to breathe and make sense of his predicament, Regina remained emotionless and adamant in her endeavour and proceeded to hold him tighter. She could literally feel the life being squeezed out of him, as Jared's eyes began fluctuating and his face was becoming more and more pale. But before she could deal the final death push, a voice from behind stopped her.

"Don't do it!"

Regina blinked but didn't say anything. She let go of Jared a bit, but only enough to keep him in limbo.

"You're better than this, Regina. What are you doing?"

Jared was already beginning to pass out, but he could've sworn Regina mumbling something within earshot: _Liam._

"MARK! WTF are you doing? Get back up here!" Vic reasoned.

"What are you guys...blind?" Marcus said as he slowly took baby steps towards the fragile Regina. "It's Regina. This is Regina we're talking about,"

She remained motionless at Marcus's advances. Something within her was stirring. Bottled emotions perhaps?

"He's gone, Vic," Alex coldly said, as he grasped his bible tighter. "Let's just hope God's plans are for the greater goo—"

"OMG SHUT UP!" Vic shouted back. "Stop it with that thing you're doing with the bible and the purist crap! I mean who the FUCK talks like that? Who are you kidding? Didya think I didn't happen to notice how you were just passively observing everyone else? I mean, what was I doing? I was watching yes, but it wasn't because I wanted to. Now I have this key, because I knew how to act. You won't even pick up the pieces,"

"It matters not," Alex said, unfazed by the rant. "Regina is blessed with something we can never understand in this world. And there's only one Man in this world—or this lifetime-that's capable of transcribing these random acts of violence,"

Vic stood speechless, unable to process how Alex had just justified Violence with God in the same sentence.

"No it's not!" Marcus responded with vigour. "I'm sick and tired of all you people, thinking that Regina is somehow a different person, and therefore should be treated differently. Open your eyes people! Look at what we've become! Yes, our fate has been decided by a higher power...but it is our _destiny_ that defines what we do. It's the how that keeps us going. And until that day we die, we can't let this place bury us all to hell!" Marcus was exasperated at this point as the remaining students looked on, but he let his gaze fall back on Regina who was now within arm's length of him. Her eyes met his, and he knew that she was starting to get her sanity back.

And as Marcus reached for Regina's stabbing hand, a very sharp pop was heard exploding on the right side of his ear and whizzed past him. In the same instant he had his hand on her, Regina's smile had faded and her head had already fallen backwards to the ground. After a blink of an eye Marcus would soon discover that a bullet had found a new resting place at her forehead.

"NOOOO-," Marcus quickly looked up to spot shooter. "Dirk? WHAT THE HELL...?"

The gun was still smoking as the wielder turned his attention towards Marcus. "She was totally going to swat you, man. I just saved your life..."

"BULLSHIT! I saw no such thing! You asshole!"

Dirk smugly scoffed and waved the gun around haphazardly. "I saved your life, okay? That's it. Just chill...,"

Little did he know however that the bullet's impact was so powerful that it had pierced through both people as soon as he had pulled the trigger. Jared was already dead before Regina's body even hit the ground...a fact which Dirk had nervously taken throughout the remaining parts. "If anything...," Dirk said, continuing his smug tone. "...you all should be the ones looking up to me. All I wanted was a decent DS and PSP game to play and suddenly I get framed for a murder I didn't commit. That is the LAMEST THING EVER!"

Marcus was angry now. He couldn't think about how he was going to cram all the reasons for Dirk's misdemeanour: the videogame addict attitude, the _LAME _talk, the fact that he could just shoot anyone he wants without even considering the consequences. It would only take a second for him answer back in the most violent of ways. It would only take one split-second for him to rush upstairs and quickly subdue and beat the hell out of him. And it would only take a moment's notice to rip his head off in the manner that Dirk had mercilessly shot Regina. He wanted to kill him.

But even as that one second drew close, it was not meant to be for Fate-in its unpredictable little way would surprise everyone as the reception doors would burst open...

"Tristan...!" Leo managed to say, standing, ever so dangerously close to where Dirk was.

There he stood like a tired old giant, smelling somewhat strongly of grinded beans of black coffee. In fact, his mouth was watering with a sultry brown and his eyes were as blank as mindless. He turned his head towards Dirk's direction and looked at the smoking gun before him. Instantly, memories of Lily flashed before his head, and then the evil visages of her bloodied and battered body. If he had flashbacked anymore, he would've remembered downing a whole coffee jar in the pantry, but that memory would be sealed at the sight of Dirk's gun.

He puts two and two together, and like a once faulty circuit, finally managed to shed some light on his own. He was as quick to step in and maul Dirk to pieces, ripping off his clothes and attempted to tear into his flesh. Dirk tried to escape but the randomness of Tristan's attacks were just too fierce to predict and block.

Leo could only stand in sheer terror as he didn't even mind wetting himself. The rest just stood there as well, but while they too felt the horror and the madness and the fear, they each silently kept to themselves—Marcus especially-that this was all a most entertainingly morbid sign of poetic justice.

Marcus smiled inwardly.

After a moment's struggle, Dirk had finally caught one of Tristan' oncoming fists, but it was quickly met with the other hand as it winded him back a distance, cricking his neck in the most painful way, and pushing him over the edge of the 2nd floor railing...to his death.

Almost, anyway.

Dirk was heavily breathing now, with one eye out of its socket, as he tried to say something or anything at all. With the last of his energy, he finally managed: "Lame...," which for the most part was very inaudible seeing as how as soon as Dirk had fallen to the floor, Tristan was already in the air, chasing after him and instantly landing on Dirk's windpipe, killing him instantly.

Now Marcus's inward smile turned into an outward frown as the five foot undead giant stood in front of him. Tristan was frothing in the mouth now; a mild bubbly froth of brown, which disgustingly looked like a mild frappucino. Before Marcus sought a death wish though, Tristan fell forwards without a fight as his body somewhat twitched repeatedly before finally laying lifeless.

"Well. That was convenient. Is he dead?" Leo stuttered, backing away in fear towards the office doors. He thought about the minutes and hours he had spent with Dirk in that room, and how they had had a higher chance at survival. Maybe, he could still make it, he thought. Maybe...

CRASH! Came the door once again, as Leo never saw the face of a second assailant, who's hand had just pierced through the door's wooden surface, and straight through into Leo's body! Leo quickly fell to the floor, and instinctively grabbed the gun Dirk had dropped while rolling over in pain to aim at his attacker...Steven!

was the last few sounds he heard from the gun's apparently jammed barrel before Steven tugged on his leg and reeled him in. Across the central atrium on the other side of the 2nd floor, the last thing Vic and Alex could see was Leo supposedly aiming at the zombie-like David, as the door immediately shut behind them both.

At first there was disturbing silence, but after a few seconds, David's inaudible speech could be heard, as the sound of furniture being tossed around accompanied the scene. And just when the rest of them thought it was a hopeless case they were quickly caught off guard by the next sound that struck their ears with a vengeance:

BANG!

And then all was quiet once again.

Vic and Marcus looked on in shock, as a stunning realization had come to him: it only took thirty minutes of tension to force the death of five students at once. Now there was only the sickly Grace, the determined Evelyn, the disturbingly calm Alex, the confused Marcus, and himself, he pondered next on how much violence a single day-no _several_ days would bring.

This was it. Down to the wire. The last round.

It was do or die.

Results:

10th - Jared: The Last Coward

9th – Regina: Distressed Damsel

8th - Dirk: Psychotic Beatdown

7th - Tristan: Emo Killed the Beast

6th - Leo: Knock Knock...and you're dead


	13. Only

_**Item #21: Baseball Bat**_

WHA-UMPH!

"It's still moving, right?"

WHA-THUMP!

"Just take it down!"

WHA-PAK!

"…I think I'm going to be sick. It's…it's all over my-OHMYGODITSTILLMOVING KILL IT! KILL IT!

Bash. Bash. Bash. All four weapons came down, beating David's already battered body into extreme submission. None of the four stopped until his body was literally grinded into bits. They weren't going to take any more chances this time after witnessing the unholy stunt David's knife-to-the-head body just pulled, rising from the dead like that and then taking out another. Leo's death was an unnecessary one after all.

But what else is really unnecessary these days?

More than ten days have passed since this game started, and a lot's happened. Some have killed, some have betrayed their own friends, and most have paid the price for their actions. There've been uprisings, love triangles, chaos abound. But now it was down to the wire for in this very room stood the final survivors of this madness.

In a way, beating David non-stop was a way of abating this madness altogether. There was just something satisfying about killing something that deserved to die. And while none of the four even remotely knew of David save for his first name and somewhat disturbing brooding nature, none of them could care any less. One look at Leo's scarred mess of a body said it all: they didn't want to be stupid enough to take the risk.

While Vic dealt the finishing blow by stomping on David's cranium, Marcus was feeling queasier than ever as he stumbled out of the offices to take in a heavy breath of fresh air. It had to take all three of them to talk him into it in the first place. Under Vic's own direction, nobody would take it upon themselves to commit murder unless it was unanimous.

As Marcus tried to make his way towards the washroom though, he almost jumped when he felt a cold hand touch his shoulder.

It was Grace.

Easily mistakable for anything else, Grace had it the worst amongst the five. Her tattered clothes and rugged exterior was nothing compared to what had been brewing in her mind since that day she killed her best friend in cold blood. Of course nobody-especially Marcus would know anything about this. Not that he'd ever want to. Judging from the way she was looking at him, the evil intentions didn't seem too far off to linger.

And then he stepped back.

And he saw not some demented Lolita, but the tiniest and most fragile person he could imagine. She was shaking all over. Her arms in particular were involuntarily moving every once in awhile. Like clockwork, her cheekbones would twitch every other half-second; synchronous to how her own trigger finger would cringe in between those offbeat seconds. Surprisingly despite all that she was devoid of any major scars. Not even the scent of blood had touched her. Needless to say, she looked devastated beyond repair, but then again so did everyone.

"Uh...?" was all Marcus could muster, as he steadied his arm when he almost tried slinging it over her shoulder. Something just didn't sit right with that girl.

Grace said nothing. Instead, her head slightly squinted and her eyes lazily rolled up. It wasn't long before Marcus felt a foreshadowing chill up his spine, as he slowly turned to see what Grace was looking at. Marcus had to stoop down to Grace's height, as he turned his head slowly in suspense, clearly noticing a familiar figure standing on the third floor hallway.

"Polk..?"

The Third to the Last Day

The day had dragged on till sunset. Evil orange beams of light permeated like some twisted laser show, highlighting the bodies that seemed to be littered everywhere now. Everywhere Marcus looked; it was all he could see. It was no use trying to erase it all from his head. Forget the fact that he may have just seen a ghost. Marcus had fallen off Red Ant-infested trees, had had his left eyeball amputated, and had the displeasure of watching someone get shot within three feet of him!

Yet he stands tall, holding onto his values, teeter-tottering in between hope and despair. He was standing on sanity's edge, and the slightest shift in consciousness could turn him into a bad seed. And he was fully aware of what exactly happens when bad seeds sprout from within this place. The fact of the matter was-as much as none of the five wanted to admit it-anyone who had the potential of harming them was virtually dead. Daniel had long since disappeared, David was as dead as a rusty doornail, Dirk's annoyance had been extinguished, Regina had lost to her own fate, and Joseph had been shot in cold blood.

As the faces of his fallen comrades flashed before his eyes though, it was interrupted by a disturbing noise back at the offices. By the time Marcus was back at the doorway, anxious about what he had just seen, Vic was all over Evelyn, both arms down her throat, choking the life out of her! Evelyn's muffled screams were cut short with every gasp for air as she tried to kick her way free, but Vic's own body outweighed her own, and she was deadlocked to stay down. Marcus was in panic mode now, and Alex was a bit ways from the fray, fogging up his glasses with his own breath and wiping them.

"DO SOMETHING!" Marcus said, unable to bring it upon himself to stop Vic.

"Why? Isn't this more economic for the both of us? If one of them dies-" 

But Marcus wouldn't dare let his passive patron finish. Instead, he grabbed the nearest thing in the office out of pure instinct: a porcelain vase; and bashed it on Vic's head. The vase shattered instantaneously, and the senseless brawl ceased. Evelyn immediately took a deep breath as she pushed away Vic's half-limp body, who immediately got up despite the blow. Marcus held him back, as Evelyn ran to Alex's side. A face-off ensues:

"They deserved it. They all did," Alex mused. "I saw them all...I saw them turn on each other, and on their beliefs. I saw them shrivel up and turn inside out from their once human flesh, and convert into these vile...beings of hatred and -,"

"Dude, just shut up about that bible crap!" Vic said, moderately pissed off. "She started it and you know it! You were there and you saw...she went for me and I was just defending myself!"

"Th-that's not true!" Evelyn stammered, half hyperventilating. "The moment you gave me THAT look, you jumped on me and and...,"

"Wait, WHAT look? WHAT!"

"THAT look. The one use had when you were watching us from the second floor. You had this twinkle in your eye...it was very suspicious." Evelyn found herself strangely at the edge of the argument cycle. Her logic frizzled by her somewhat waning confidence...her former sense of self somewhat consumed by the images of the two people she instinctively killed before her very eyes.

"Listen to yourself! You're beginning to crack too just like the rest of us, only you won't admit to it!"

"Guys...," Marcus said, in the nicest way possible.

"WHAT!"

"I saw the professor. I saw Polk,"

Now what came after the second most terrifying word in their vocabulary was a mix of chain reactions. Alex merely shrugged and raised a brow in curiosity. Evelyn on the other hand, began feeling a chill up her spine as if some presence had just spooked her from where she stood. And Vic felt nothing at all, clueless and unknowing. Though, a cloud of scepticism floated over his head like a spotlight of shadow matter, as he went outside to search the premises. The rest followed suit soon enough and before you know it, the four were looking down on each other's feet, pondering at what might've been had they not been bickering minutes earlier.

"But...he was just up there," Marcus insisted, hoping nobody would use his missing left eye as part of some easy joke. "Grace saw it!"

"Hmmm...," Vic mused. "...where is that girl anyway?"

And it was then that the rest of the three felt the same chill Evelyn had had awhile ago. They searched every nook and cranny of the place, leaving no stone unturned, but as the day grew shorter and as the winds howled, and the darkness crept by with every second of precious sunlight gone, they realized that as the four of them were the only living breathing creatures left in this place, they were not alone.

And Grace had simply vanished.

"Vic," Alex said slowly with a serious grin on his face. "Let's use that key you made, so we can get the hell out of here. I don't want to end up like Grace."

"...key?" Evelyn curiously chimed. "What key? There's another copy?"

"Vic made one from plaster. It's a long story. I've seen it work before on Marcus,"

Evelyn took one quick look at Marcus, at where the collar was to be exact and turned into the opposite direction. Evelyn's senses were beginning to act up again.

"No, we can't use it,"

"What? Why not? Five hours ago, you were all over it."

"Five hours ago, I didn't know what I was thinking. Joseph was terrorizing us all and about ten people died before our very eyes. I was running for dear life, and some guy with a knife hole in his head just stood up and massacred one of our own. There were too many things happening at once, and I was too distracted by the fear of death, thank you very much!"

The mild sarcasm seemed nothing to Alex as he urged Vic to unlock his own collar...much to Vic's own chagrin.

"I don't think so," Vic said, as the plaster key disappeared into his back pocket.

Immediately a cold chill fell through everyone's spine, and shattered the very earth they stood on. Alex tensely raised his eyebrow in disbelief, Evelyn's right eye began to anxiously twitch, and Marcus remained neutral with a straight face, but backing off a bit, afraid of what might ensue.

"What. Do you. Mean," Alex asked in trepidation.

"What do you think," Vic coolly said, as he walked away from the collared duo. "Yeah, there were some complications in the plan, I mean that bit with Regina? What's up with her? What's up with that, huh?" Vic paused, purposely letting himself gloat in front of Alex's distraught expression. "You know there's something I've always wanted to say to you."

The scene was getting tense by the second. Marcus could see Alex and Evelyn's grip on their respective melee weapons, preparing to strike Vic down. Vic simply smiled and walked towards Alex. Slowly, he leaned towards his ear and whispered something unexpected.

"Had you fooled there for a minute, didn't I?"

Alex was caught by surprise as he felt a quick click and his own collar fell to the ground before he could even let his guard down.

"Damn you, Vic," was all Marcus managed to say as he breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat off his brow. Alex just stood there, retaining once again his stoic stature.

"Hahahaha...I'm so sorry. I just couldn't resist," Vic replied, now turning to Evelyn who instead turned away in utter disgust.

"Oh c'mon. I was just fooling around,"

"I could've killed you, you know that?" Evelyn said without looking back. "I was this close to bashing your head over, idiot," she said, her tone taking a serious turn.

"Well yeah," Vic replied, following Evelyn's frequency. "But then I would've disarmed you and swept your leg. Lighten up."

"No,"

"Look I'm really sorry. I just wanted to mess with Alex for once," was all Vic could muster.

"I mean no...," Evelyn trailed off, as she turned around and gazed at the plaster key. She thought back to an hour ago when she was struggling for the very same key, and how it was originally hidden from prying eyes and greedy hands. There was a faint connection in her mind somewhere, but it was there and slowly Evelyn's thoughts trailed off on their own. She regained her composure as she stood tall towards Vic. "...I don't want to take it off."

"What?"

"Something's not right. Can't you feel it? This. It's too easy,"

"What's too easy? Yes, Evelyn, nobody would ever have guessed that we would all end up killing each other for this key,"

"No!" Evelyn exasperatingly said. She sighed a bit, after realizing that the conversation was getting nowhere fast, if not being downright pointless. "The key landing on Joseph, who just happened to be hiding this whole time? If the items were truly randomized then we would've all ended up free by now. I just don't trust this idea. It's just a trap like what happened to Ian,"

"What're you saying?" Vic's faced turned serious now. "What. You don't trust me? Just because I just so happen to have the key, and I'm not in the same year as all of you? Look, if I knew why I'm here with all you Seniors, I swear to God I'd say so. I wasn't even here that night when you all took your midterms."

"Really. Where were you then?"

"Outside. I was walking past it. I was going home. Honest," Vic fished his pockets for a second and pulled out his own personal note, crumpled into a ball. "My note's written in the exact same way. But instead of a midterm, it depicts me going home, getting ready for my whatever the very next day."

"Just like Charles and Daniel's," Evelyn thought, though her expression still left her a bit unconvinced. "It's funny, Joseph never mentioned you. And I've never seen you until five hours ago when everything broke loose,"

"I'm a survivalist. I've gone camping a few times before. Really roughing it and everything! That's how I pretty much survived this place without food for so long. Do you want me to prove to you that I can cook the mossy rocks in this place? Do I have to feed you that shit to make you believe me?"

Evelyn turned away, expecting Alex and Marcus to follow suit, but was stopped in her tracks when Vic posed a question of his own.

"And what about you? Little Miss We-Have-To-Band-Together? Don't think I haven't noticed how you killed two of your friends in cold blood,"

"What?"

"Yeah, you heard me. If they won't say anything, I will. You stoned Albert to death and pushed Jared into a blade. And don't tell me it was because you had no choice..."

"I DIDN'T HAVE A CHOICE!"

"You wanted the key for yourself!" Vic snapped. "You were this close to Joseph and you killed Albert cos' he collar suddenly went off. And Jared...you pushed him into Regina to save yourself so you could bide more time to get the key out of Albert's enclosed fist."

Evelyn turned silent. The last four people left in Benjamin Hall, and she could not believe that at least one of them is still against her. The truth was, things happened too fast. Evelyn tried countless times recalling those two events, recanting them to herself, and always chalking it up to self-defence. She wasn't insane, and she knew that. But to justify it would just be impossible.

"If I may say something...," Alex interjected. "I haven't been exactly the nicest guy in this game. I'm an asshole, and when an opportunity comes that decreases our numbers, then I'm all for it. All over it, you can say. I approve to this elimination process,"

Marcus and Evelyn stopped their little stare down, finally catching Alex's attention.

"And Marcus here has been a mystery this whole time, I mean disappearing when Joseph just happened to make his appearance like that. And that idea with the celphone. Don't think I've forgotten about that one. Why keep that info all to yourself?"

Marcus recoiled in amazement.

"Because if everyone knew about it then they'd try-"

"MY point is!" Alex interrupted. "The four of us, each have our little secrets. But the fact of the matter is, nothing's going to go anywhere if we all continue to blame each other like this. So stop it already so we can get out of here!"

"He's right," Vic sighed, resigning from the current argument. "Let's just leave through the back gate and go...what the-?"

Much to Vic's surprise, the backdoor gate, which had previously been open since the first few days of the game, was suddenly barricaded with debris and junk as well as a new lock, this time with a shiny new bolt that looked twice as sturdier than the original.

"No way...," Marcus exclaimed. "Who could've-"

"Doesn't matter," Vic said, forcing a smile on his face. "We'll just blow it open again. No, not with Evelyn. I mean, I could use the remaining collars to trigger them prematurely," The other three stared back at Vic. They liked the idea very much, even though it remained to be simple, brilliant, and INSANE!

"No no...it'll work. We'll just have to try it on the front gate. I don't think this shiny new one is going to break that easily."

"Aren't you guys even wondering who the heck put that thing there?" Marcus wondered out loud.

"Who cares? No, seriously. We're the only ones here. Whoever put that lock on must either be dead or-"

"It's Grace isn't it,"

The group fell silent.

"We can't even find her. What does that say?"

Nobody was sure of what to answer to that, not even Marcus himself, who had been feeling chills all over ever since her sudden disappearance. Vic quietly walked towards the front gate and started getting to work. "We're getting out of here," he said. "We're leaving before this place gets to us,"

And nobody spoke of her ever again.

Dissecting the collars was actually the easy part. An unexploded rectangular panel became the blatantly obvious location as Vic skilfully lifted one off using a scalpel and some gauze from the first-aid kit. Inside, Vic was amazed at the simplicity of the circuitry: nothing but a few wires to some kind of fuse-like object-the bomb, and a digital timer with three red buttons on the side.

As Vic fiddled with the device, Marcus and Alex steadily stood before the front gates, awaiting their freedom. And while Alex was indifferent to the premise at hand, Marcus kept glancing over his shoulder.

Evelyn just stood there in the central garden, palm under her chin, thinking back to that day everyone had just woken up and huddled together to this joke of a game. She remembered the note that their professor had left them and the items too. She remembered how they were found, and how they found each other, and the riddle that was room B120-which was a dead end in itself.

"I know there's something," she said to no one in particular. She wasn't one to voice any speculation, but a trail on unanswered questions loomed closely behind her.

If they were all so close together, what was the point of having several notes? Couldn't he have just posted one big notice where everyone can see? And the items...why haphazardly hide them like that? Were the places they were found in significant? Or was the actual finding of these items significant? And why go through the trouble of having collars for everyone when one of the items was a key?

Sure, it meant that they weren't suppose to last more than three days, so why hasn't anyone come for them? And why go through the trouble of supplying all these items-some of which are hard enough to acquire such as the mattress, and literally TONS of food-if it was only going to last for a short while? That would definitely mean the situation was compensating for something, like it was meant to last as long as possible and yet an easily definable shortcut was at hand?

It doesn't make sense.

And while it all sounded so insane, so was the existence of these collars to begin with. Evelyn paced around a bit, massaging her forehead. If only she had more time. Maybe she could see something no one's ever seen before.

"One day."

Evelyn looked up.

"We got one more day to live. At the very least," Vic had just adjusted the last of the collars and proceeded to hang them over by the front gate's lock.

"When I unlocked the collars, they shut off from the inside, so I couldn't tell what day it was and what day it would explode," Vic firmly closed the gap between one of the collars as a brief 'BEEP' sounded off, signalling it was now armed again. "There's no way I'm setting it to today...damn thing might explode in my hands so I've set the timer for at least 24 hours. We literally have one day before this thing opens up. I don't know what time though, but it's definitely tomorrow."

After some last minute checking, Vic went over to Evelyn and begged her to set her free one last time.

"No Vic," Evelyn firmly said. "There's more to this I just know it!"

"Well, whatever then," Vic said dejectedly. Behind him, Marcus and Alex looked on and said nothing. "You have all night to think about it. There's always tommorow,"

"One night."

Evelyn slumped down by the green greens, not too far away from her fallen friend's gravesites, and dead carcasses. Her head had hurt like hell, but she'd been through tougher conundrums before.

**Results:**

Nothing to report.


	14. Boundaries

_"One night,"_

One night.

Evelyn walked past the dimly lit classrooms that night, as up above the remaining trio had begun to celebrate by having a grand dinner of sorts. She could hardly believe it was going to be the last night ever. She could hardly believe anything could ever be over though for as she looked up towards the night sky and saw the very same full moon she had seen night before, she couldn't help but reminisce and remember...

_"ACK! She bit me...,"_

...seeing Katrina for the last time, as they dragged her into one of the classroom's darkest corners, gagging her with anything they could find. Subduing her. Antagonizing her. Taunting her. She couldn't help but repent and regret...

_"Hold her still! This stab has to be precise!"_

...agreeing to the stupid plan in the first place. He told her it was just scare tactics, that the premise of a knife-wielding madman would force everyone to band together, or at least, get them all together in one place. He promised her a lot of things. Worse, she couldn't help but feel that the remorse...

_"LOOK AT HER! LOOK AT HER SQUEAL!"_

...was nowhere to be found.

The Second to the Last Day

Vic and Alex were already there, standing a few feet away from the front gate. One of the collars had begun beeping, and the duo took deep breaths in anticipation. It was like watching television, really.

Marcus immediately ran downstairs as Evelyn looked on. The beeping was driving her up the wall despite it being not on her own neck. Though she did not realize it, the other three were squirming on the inside as well. Conditioned to the dreaded noise that sounded their doom, feelings of joy and relief forcefully overrode them now that the very same devices used to end them were now the key to their very freedom.

The beeping grew louder and more rapid now. Evelyn had regressed back into the classroom to shut the noise. The other three relaxed and waited for the fireworks.

POP!

The collars, chained together in such a manner, collectively exploded into a small, yet powerful blast enough to knock the rusty lock off of the gate. Truth be told, it wasn't as exciting as it sounded. Vic was slightly disappointed that the blast was significantly smaller than it should be.

Evelyn wondered the same thing, actually...

Now that the way out was truly opened, was there really anything left standing in their way?

"My god...," Marcus managed to say, as he worthlessly stood there in awe, pondering about everything that's happened. "...it's over,"

He was right. Freedom was just seconds away.

But as the three didn't expect, leaving Benjamin Hall was harder than they thought. Growing attached to their new home and their fallen comrades gave each one of them a sense of regret and remorse for awhile. It took them ten seconds to bow their heads down in respect for the dead, and find peace in their hearts.

Then an additional second for Vic to finally say "Let's go,"

"YAHOOO!"-to another thirty seconds as Marcus rushed outside as fast as his legs could carry him, through the vent of open air and into the open ground. He ran around in circles, he screamed to the heavens, and he laughed and cried at the same time.

Twenty more seconds pass, as the scene was interrupted by the sound of Evelyn quickly beating feet from behind. Grasping the front gate's bars, she quickly screamed from the top of her lungs.

"MAAAAARRRCUS! GET BACK HERE! QUICK!"

But he wasn't listening. He wouldn't. He was too busy appreciating the open sky. But Vic who was within earshot, winced and hesitated. The look on Evelyn's face, as well as the sound of her voice perturbed him, overriding his feelings of euphoria that very moment.

Something was very wrong.

"MARCUS! SOMETHING'S WROOONG! MAAAARCUS!"

A couple more seconds pass. Vic joins in the shouting as well, for Marcus had gone a little ways too far: over and across the street even.

Finally Marcus stopped on a dime, a mere 20 feet away from everyone else. He turned around slowly, his face frozen with some indescribable fear. Evelyn and Vic could only catch a glimpse of his face before...

...before the final second passed on.

FOOOM!

"Shit!" Vic jumped back as he crawled his way back towards the front porch. Alex and Evelyn were surprised as well. They have never seen anything as wanton as that before: the side of Marcus' neck exploding out of nowhere.

"Jesus Christ!" Vic exclaimed. The impact must've been _painless_ in the very least. Marcus wouldn't have felt a thing, and instantly died from the blast.

"He...he's moving," Alex assured, clearing up his foggy glasses. "How can he still be alive?"

"We have to get him back here," Evelyn said, "We can't let him die like this."

"Why? We've let others died before...,"

"Shut up, Alex...," was all Evelyn could muster. She was this close to strangling him to death herself. But as cold as it sounded, Alex was right. There was no way anyone could save Marcus without dying as well.

"Unless of course, YOU went in there," Alex concluded. "You're the only one smart enough to still be wearing that thing on your neck." Evelyn gasped. He was right on that account as well. Vic was too paralyzed to say anything as Evelyn took a deep breath, and ran outside without a moment's thought.

Not even halfway to her destination, and Death's bells were already tolling.

BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP

Evelyn picked up the pace, tripping once before finally reaching Marcus's body. She quickly grabbed him by the shoulders and slowly tugged on them, carefully not touching his neck or head. Marcus was breathing heavily as he tried to grab Evelyn's collar, to which she swatted away out of reflex.

"Not now, Marcus."

BEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEEEP

Evelyn was too panicked to see if what she was doing was making things worse, as her path was left with a trail of blood, much like that from a slug. Marcus tried to help her by inching his body little by little every time Evelyn made a tug.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

"Sorry about this...," Evelyn apologized in advance as she dropped Marcus's upper body and ran back to Benjamin Hall. She had only dragged him a few feet, and the returning distance was even more dangerous now that she was running out of energy.

"This is bad," Alex said. "She's biting off more than she can chew," Evelyn fell on one knee now, as the beeping reached its climax.

BEEEEEEE-

"NO!" In her last breath, Evelyn thrusted her other leg, making one big leap forward.

The beeping stopped.

Evelyn was panting for her life now, perspiration streaming from all over. She smiled a bittersweet smile, barely making it from the deadzone. As she turned her head slightly to see how far she had to go, a pre-beep noise jerked her backwards out of impulse.

"I was being sarcastic, you know," Alex commented. "I can't believe she actually ran out there like that,"

"You can do it Evelyn!" victor shouted, ignoring Alex's remark.

She has to, Evelyn thought to herself. She couldn't let anyone die again. The memory of her promise that night reinvigorated her. Sitting up now, she takes one more deep breath before standing up and jumping into the fray once again.

BEEP BEEP

"Quiet you," Evelyn snarled under her breath, as she made her way to Marcus's body. Once again she took him by the shoulders and begun tugging and dragging him towards Vic. The motions came more focused now as her adrenaline kicked in, and the sounds of the beeping collar slowly shut themselves out in her presence.

Marcus was going to make it.

Vic looked on in anticipation, feeling the numbness in his fingers. First he tried to keep calm and stay warm, putting them under his armpits and blowing hot air into them. And then he brought them towards his bare neck which made him shudder even more. The thought of almost having Marcus's fate led him to despair.

But he was also too preoccupied with his own near-death experience, that he didn't notice the gate behind him creaking and slamming itself shut. It was only until he heard the familiar click did Vic turn around to spot an optimistic Alex.

_**Item #4: Ammo Clip**_

"It was you...," Vic said. "...you locked up the back gate! You moved all the bodies around!"

"Well you were right about one of them," Alex replied, "Sorry, gotta go."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Vic exclaimed as he violently tried shaking the gate doors open. "Alex! What the hell, man!"

It wasn't long before Alex's panicky face turned into a sincerely sly smile. He casually walked to the other end of Benjamin Hall and reached for something hidden underneath the shrubbery.

It was a gun. The one and only.

"There's only one thing I can do with this," Alex slowly said, caressing the barrel with his forefinger as the fresh new ammo clip slid in with a defining click. "So, if you know what's good for you, you're going to back off," And without warning, Alex turned and fired in Vic's direction. Vic ducked and ran to the side for cover. Even though Alex was several feet away and wasn't exactly the best shot in the world, he knew Alex meant business.

"Vic?" Evelyn shouted, still ruthlessly dragging Marcus's half-lucid body onto the pavement. She panted heavily after a few tugs of exhaustion and wanted to collapse but she stayed strong and focused on the task at hand.

Alex casually walked back to the front gate as he watched Evelyn and her futile attempt at saving life. For a moment the gun sight was trained on her as well, but as she too disappeared into the corner, Alex took a deep breath and a sigh of misplaced relief.

"So fun...," he scoffed, as he mildly chuckled to himself. "...playing God."

Vic's mind raced about Alex and his sudden turn for the worse. He was with him the whole time, and he couldn't have guessed that everything leading up to this point was premeditated. He kicked himself for not noticing it any sooner: but there was no way Alex would even have that gun if...

No. It wasn't possible.

"Alex!" Vic called out from the side of the building. "What did you do to Grace?"

"Nothing," was Alex's curt reply.

For awhile the silence taunted both men until finally Alex spoke again. He just couldn't resist.

"But tell you what, why don't you ask her yourself. I'm sure you'll be joining her very, very soon."

**Results:**

5th - Grace: C%sd#aa&- - -

ERROR: Unverifiable. Accountability denied.


	15. Epiphany

The Last Night

"I KNOW WHERE YOU ARE!"

Evelyn jumped at the sound of Alex's voice. She wasn't expecting him to use that undesirable tone of voice.

"No, not really...but I know you're all out there. Plotting. Conspiring. Scheming. Not against me per se, but eventually, it would have come to that I mean, I was just as surprised when I saw Marcus die. You didn't have anything to do with that did you?"

The duo outside was barely listening, as they dragged Marcus' heavy half-dead body around the corner and up the steps of B120. Evelyn was still feeling the fatigue from having to risk her own life hours ago, and having to drag Marcus's body herself across asphalt and cement.

"It's human nature," Alex droned on, as Evelyn and Vic laid low by the underbrush of the building's sidewall. "So now we've learned that the collars were useless! I just decided to take the easiest way out. Sorry guys. I didn't really intend for all this to happen. But then again, so has anyone lately."

Realizing who Alex was addressing to, Vic leaned towards Evelyn, carefully avoiding the Dead Zone or startling Marcus awake. "Keep him busy,"

Evelyn nodded as he slowly snuck back up to the front gate. Keeping his head down and using the night to his advantage, he slowly peered inside from the smallest corner. Benjamin Hall was lifeless as ever now that there was only one lone gunman left, traversing the halls. The night was actually something else to him as the darkness and the moonlit sky heightened his senses of perception. His vision hovered carefully around every nook and cranny, like slow-moving searchlights.

"Oh don't worry, I'm not going to judge you. After all, God will forgive us all eventually," a low clanging sound echoed behind Alex's words. Vic wondered where he could possibly be walking by.

"God doesn't forgive cowards!" Evelyn rebutted, making sure Alex knew exactly where she was. "And using scripture to justify your motivations? What's up with that Alex? Nobody thinks you're for real, and especially not me! Stop pretending like you're above all this!"

Alex exaggeratingly laughed a bit, seemingly amused. "Taunting me will get you nowhere. I know what you're trying to do. You're trying to get me to feel GUILTY over nothing! I'm sorry to disappoint you but I'm better than that. I'm-"

"You're a coward!" Evelyn snapped. "And you know it!"

"So I'm just as sinful as you are," Alex smugly retorted with a bit of frustration in his voice. "That's why I'm making up for it. I've taken ACTION! And now I'm here and all of you are out there. I've taken this place for myself. And there's nothing you can do about it. After losing the will to live without any food, your bodies will shrivel up and die like TJ. Face it, I've won this game. I played it well, and I played smart. I win. The two of you lose. End of story."

"Gotcha," Vic muttered, as he picked himself up and carefully headed back the way he came.

By the time Vic got back, Evelyn had already dragged Marcus inside the long forgotten B120-their original dead end. Marcus hadn't said a word since Evelyn bandaged the wound around his neck by ripping off one of her sleeves. It was hard enough having nothing to work with, but having to see someone slowly slip through their fingers was essentially more painful.

For awhile, Vic considered scaling the walls but decided against it when he noticed Daniel's body a few feet away from the building's radius. Strangely, TJ's body was nowhere in sight. Vic decided not to dwell on the dead anymore after that. For awhile, they had a taste of freedom, but they were too hasty. He wasn't about to let the smell of death get to him.

"I can't believe Alex...," he said, leaning on B120's doorway as he sighed in stressful grief.

"We couldn't have known. So stop blaming yourself,"

"I was with him for the most part. I already knew he was borderline but I didn't think he'd go through with it. But GOD, he was so obviously evil!"

"No he's not," Evelyn managed a smile of hope. "As much as you'd like to think, I'd do the same thing. And maybe even you. And if that were the case would you rather have Alex here instead whining about it?"

"Hmm," Vic mused, "Why are you so calm about this?"

"Because there's no use panicking," Evelyn concluded, as she tied the final knot on Marcus's bandage. "Our time here, has changed us...for better or worse. If we're not human then what are we?"

Vic said nothing. Evelyn's tone sounded genuine if not cliché and yet strangely devoid of contradiction. Hope though, that was debatable. Saving Marcus probably showed some of it, but Vic wasn't sure himself. He wanted to be reassured.

"Prove it then," he said. "Prove to me Alex was acting out of instinct,"

"He said 'two'," Evelyn replied as-a-matter-a-factly.

"Two?"

"He said 'the TWO of you lose. Earlier he was just as surprised that Marcus was dead, when he's clearly still alive. If he intended any of this, then Marcus' death should've been premeditated. But instead, he's assuming we're the only ones left."

"Evelyn...,"

"Alex is a good person," Evelyn firmly said. "And that's the only reason why I've tolerated his attitude from the start. Don't you see it? The way we're at each other since the first killings began," Evelyn paused for a second, trying to shield away her memory of the knife murders, "Stop thinking like everyone's out to kill each other."

"But what CAN we do?"

Evelyn said nothing. She was tired and nervous from the day's events. Her eyes lazily rolled around, scanning the grim and gloomy setting that was B120: the Generator Room. Their only light source was the gleam of moonlight, clearly illuminating from the doorway, and two of the walls.

One of which gave off a very obscure glow.

"Hm?" Evelyn squinted as she stood up and took a closer look at one of the damp walls. As she took a curious glance, she kicked something mildly heavy on the ground. It took awhile to find it because of the ensuing darkness, but it was well worth the find.

_**Item #17: Flashlight**_

The apparent tag number on it, meant that this must've been TJ's item when he was still alive. Holding it properly now, she flicked it on and was surprised to see writings and markings of all sorts on the walls. There were variables upon variables and equations to boot. A's becoming C's, transmuting into DEF's and integrating with B's. From afar it resembled a massive mathematical work of art.

"Whoa...," Vic remarked, obviously awed at it all. He also noticed a separate color of marker. It was lighter and smaller in terms of quality. A pencil perhaps?

"He must've tried to solve this thing for at least a week straight," Evelyn mused. Gears cranked, clicked in place. A shiny light bulb was on the horizon.

As Evelyn lost herself in her thoughts, Vic was still trying to stop Marcus's bleeding. He was okay for the most part, but unconscious. Vic cursed under his breath, as he attempted to detect the bomb's point of origin. After seeing death everywhere, he wasn't the least bit grossed out at the huge chunk of flesh now missing from Marcus's neck. He thought back to when Nelia had first suffered the same fate and shuddered. Her death seemed so sudden and uncalled for. Marcus' however...and this scared him a bit too...felt like he had it coming.

Were they not suppose to leave this place?

The thought of euthanizing him passed for a second, but decided against it. He never considered it again. Meticulously working to close the wound up with nothing but cloth, Vic came upon some curious metallic objects embedded close to the neck's blast radius. Curious, he slowly picked them up one by one with his index finger and thumb, and studied them closely.

They were oddly shaped pieces of electronics, not unlike that of those he was tinkering from within the collar. It's almost as if they were made from the same material.

"The bomb," he mused to himself. "This was the bomb,"

He slapped his forehead as he realized how he couldn't have noticed it before. "The collars were just transmitters. No wonder I didn't find anything complex in those things. It was just a timer and some wires and a tiny motherboard. Evelyn, the collars actually served more help than harm. They warned us when we were about to...die...," Vic trailed off quietly. He thought back to when Evelyn was trying to stop both of them from walking out.

She already knew.

Vic sighed as he slumped back down, dejected and defeated. He guffawed a bit as he pondered about the apparent irony of their situation. Even if they both knew about this collar business now, how was it going to help their case?

"It was in our necks. That's just sick," Vic said to himself. The very thought of Alex hoarding everything made him shudder and take out his knife. And as he did that, the moonlight reflected on its somewhat shiny surface.

And then Vic quickly had a brainstorm.

Carefully, he positioned the knife in such a way that it was aiming down his own neck. It took awhile but eventually, he was able to use it as a mirror of sorts. Tracing Marcus's neck wound with one finger, he carefully pinpointed where the bomb would be on his own neck. He then took some of the cloth from Marcus's wound and bit down on it.

"Here goes nothing,"

After taking one deep breath, Vic lightly stuck the tip of the knife onto where he had estimated the bomb would be. He dug deeper, screaming into the cloth in the process, but definitely feeling something solid within the next second. With a slight twist of the knife's handle he was able to use it was leverage in popping the thing out.

"Mmmmmrrrrggghhh!" was all Vic would allow himself to say as a curiously metallic semi-spherical object popped out of Vic's neck.

The next five seconds were the worse five seconds of Vic's life as the pain finally subsided into a numb feeling. He immediately used the cloth he was biting on to stop his own neck from bleeding. He was shocked to have bled so much despite only digging a shallow portion of his skin. He must've dug a bit deeper than he planned.

"Evelyn…," Vic managed to say, huffing in between. "I did it. I took out the-"

"No time for that," Evelyn quickly replied, jotting down the last few numbers into her memory. "I think I've figured it all out. We have to get back inside. We have to get back to that classroom,"

"What classroom?"

"B115. Where it all began…,"

"What're you talking about?"

"Joseph's base of operations," Evelyn continued, stepping out into the open. "That third floor corner classroom where that blasted laptop is. This…this algorithm on the wall…is the key! It unlocks everything!"

"What's up with you? Haven't you forgotten we're trapped outside with no way out?"

"Not exactly,"

Getting back inside was easier than expected. TJ's scribbles proved to be much more useful than initially suggested. In his wall, which he had been trapped in for days on end, he had drawn up the entire map of the place, detailing things both Evelyn and Vic had never seen before. But more importantly, TJ had carefully documented B119, a classroom directly beside B120.

Even better, it had a back door.

As the duo grabbed Marcus and made their way outside and onto the B119 door, Vic initially suggested to blow the door open again as he did back then. But before Evelyn could argue, they were surprised to notice that it was in fact unlocked.

"No…that meant…,"

Evelyn was thinking it too. Perhaps it was slightly stupid of TJ to have dropped from such a great height, only to land on B120 without a way out. The way out had been perfectly clear from the start. But then if TJ knew there was a way back in, then why didn't he just use it?

Vic was the first inside. He carefully slipped in and immediately noticed that it was a lab, but none he's ever seen before. There were no chemicals, or vials and tubes of any sort. It housed machinery of all sorts, and a big furnace-like oven in the corner. The gas pipes were all over the room, like a spider's web. This was a very dangerous lab. Six feet away, the front door was in plain sight. Vic eased up the knob and twisted it slowly, pushing it with the utmost carefulness. Evelyn wasn't too far behind, dragging Marcus in by the arms.

Marcus was half-asleep. He blinked rapidly several times, assuring himself he was still alive. The explosion had jarred his psyche, and he knew this. Despite the many moments he could've passed out, Marcus stayed strong. He didn't want to die when he was so close.

As Vic carefully took a peek outside, he was immediately met with a very uncomfortable feeling.

"Hello, there."

Vic heaved a heavy sigh, as the cold metallic barrel rubbed against the side of his head. Alex's hands were shaking but the point was moot. How could he miss from a distance like this?

"I can't say I've always dreamed this day would come, can I?" Alex urged on, as he prodded the barrel further, making his point.

"Be cool, man. Be cool. I can help you,"

"Your plans are too complicated," Alex said with ease, never letting his guard down. "I always had the right answers."

"The bomb is inside you, dude. I can take it out-"

"I don't want to hear it!"

"It's not a trick!"

"I know it's not!" Alex shouted. Vic almost jumped, having never heard him snap out like that before. "But I'm sick of risk. I'm sick of having hope and I'm sick of uncertainties. Last night, I had the biggest epiphany of my life: when I saw her, and the wretched things that I had done, and everything that led to this point. I realized all I ever wanted was an excuse to hurt people. There I said it!"

"Her-?"

"SHUT UP!" Alex snapped as he quickly pistol-whipped Vic's face, knocking Vic to the ground as Alex continued aiming at him from where he fell. "As far as anyone was concerned, she was already dead! From the moment I told her things were going to be alright. From the moment I stood behind her and whispered the message in her ear. I took care of her. I had my way with her and held her hand, and together we both pulled that trigger. That night...,"

Alex's eyes began watering up as tears trickled down his cheeks. His itchy trigger finger shook uncontrollably as his hangover phase took over, eliminating any sense of control in his self. In his own mind's eye, his walls began crumbling around him, as he was further sickened by his actions.

He smiled. It was a sickly smile.

"That night...when we shot Carly. Grace had sold herself to me. I was in control. And-and-it felt good."

"God...Alex...," was all Vic could manage for not only was he shocked beyond belief, but he was wary as well. Alex's morning breath had clearly given away his implied reckless binge drinking. He dare not make any sudden moves.

At least, not yet.

"There's no need to patronize me," Alex continued in his delusion, never letting his gun down. "Her own best friend was going to bludgeon her with a bloody lead pipe if I hadn't intervened. I simply acted on my own...good will,"

"But you just said-"

"I KNOW WHAT I JUST SAID!" Alex angrily shouted back. "I'm not stupid! My good will is still my own. But we're all just human right? What are we but victims of an illogical world, trying to make sense of everything." Alex was getting more unstable by the minute, stuttering nonsense half of the time. Vic's attempts at pulling himself up slowly went unnoticed as Alex drone on.

"So, I like hurting people, so what? These tears only prove the limits of my humanity, but not my intentions. For all you know, Evelyn could just be leading you on, just as she's always done since this whole business with the collars started. You ever think of that?"

Vic eyed the doorway Alex was parallel from. The door was slightly ajar, as it swung back and forth. Was there a breeze in the room?

No.

Before Alex could say another word, Marcus used the last of his strength to violently kick the door open, knocking Alex sideways. In the blink of an eye, Vic sprung back and easily wrestled the gun out of his hands. Alex was quick to lunge back however and the two fell on each other, with the gun sliding a few feet away.

Alex took a few good swings as Vic decisively blocked and kicked Alex back. He turned and made a run for the pistol but Alex was quick to pull his leg back, denying him by a few centimeters.

Marcus looked on in trepidation as the two fought for their lives. Behind them, the sun eerily glowed behind some clouds but other than that it was a perfectly fine day. Surreal.

After a tense human tug of war, Alex was finally able to use Vic's leg as leverage, pulling himself up and running over him, trampling him in the process. He managed to kick the gun away before Vic could swipe it and turned to pick it up himself. In a last second's desperation, Vic pulled out Evelyn's knife and sprung forward, stabbing Alex in the knee just as he turned to shoot.

Bullets whizzed past Vic's ear, as he rolled sideways into the lawn. His ears were ringing now but he didn't care! He gripped his knife tighter and stood on one knee, before Alex once again aimed at him, as his other arm, tended to his now bleeding leg. Alex was breathing heavily from the shock. It was all so sudden but the adrenaline was enough to snap him out of his previously delirious hangover.

Alex smiled.

"Any last words?"

"...last one," Vic cryptically said, never dropping his guard.

"Sorry!" Alex said in stride. "That's all the time we have for today. Goodbye!"

CLICKCLICKCLICKCLICKCLICK

A barrage of nothing was all Alex's itchy trigger finger could produce as he frustratingly cursed under his breath.

"I said...," Vic said, as he quickly parried the gun away with his knife. "...that shot...was the LAST one,"

"How did you...,"

"You're not the only one who's been watching everyone since day one," Vic said, as he leaned closer and pointed the knife's edge towards Alex's face. "Grace used up at least one. Joseph wasted ALOT. Regina used one more to kill him. And then you were just cocky enough to scare me off with even more."

Alex backed tried crawling backwards but the sting in his knee was too much to bear. He froze at the sight of the knife's edge directly aimed in between his eyes. A smile attempted to force its way into his troubled face, but the euphoria had long passed. He was cold, scared, and powerless in the face of imminent death.

And Vic, as much as he wanted to muster up all his pent up rage, instead felt pity and confusion. Killing cold-heartedly was one thing, but ravaging someone and then breaking her was another. Vic's hand went cold as he could only imagine what took place all those nights ago, how he didn't suspect a thing, despite seeing it all. From where he stood, Alex was harmless. Why he couldn't have seen it coming would boggle him to no end. But he steadied his hand, as soon as he realized it wouldn't have to continue any longer.

"Grace didn't deserve to be in any sick fantasy,"

Alex said nothing.

"Evelyn was deluding herself. There's no way anyone like you could ever survive and live to see tomorrow. I'm ending this right now," Vic said, slowly winding his arm back for a fatal stab.

"Are you sure about that?" Alex suddenly asked.

"About what?" Vic replied under his clenched teeth.

"Evelyn,"

It didn't take long for Vic to notice that there was a rising shadow in front of him, and what looked like an arm raised at them both.

THWAK!

Vic fell to the ground. The swift swing of a potentially heavy flashlight was enough to knock him out cold, leaving a minor gash at the back of his head. Evelyn stood there, behind him, indifferent yet reluctant at the same time. She held out her hand towards Alex's direction, as Alex obliged in picking himself up.

"I never trusted him," she said.

"What was your first clue?" Alex sarcastically remarked.

With Alex hopping on one leg, the pair made their way upstairs into the original base of operations that was B115. Everything was still as they left it: chairs and tables in disarray, a dried up blood pool where Carly had been slain, and Nelia's laptop computer was sitting on one of the tables. Evelyn let Alex sit on one of the nearby chairs, as she went towards the laptop and jiggled the screensaver loose. A few keys clacked and clicked until finally, she hit pay dirt.

"This better be worth it," Alex said, catching up his breath. The pain in his leg had gone numb, as he stretched it little by little. "Betrayal isn't exactly my forte."

"It should be," Evelyn curtly replied, not looking away from the monitor. She wasn't really surprised by what she would find. She already knew in a sense, but her brilliance wanted evidence to support her cause. She thought back to Joseph's methods, and his intended betrayal upon the completion of his plan. She already knew about the key, and intended for Ronald to go down regardless of acquiring it. Alex on the other hand played the outside. His eyes and ears were vital to the chaotic events that would follow.

With two sides still clearly visible, she and Alex would deliberately have them clash with each other. And Regina's sudden turn, while bothersome, ultimately proved useful. Joseph was right in that one respect: the Gang had to go down early first, lest they band together almost immediately.

But even before that Joseph was already scheming to sow a bit of discord. The murders began by accident, when Katrina fought her way free from an intended scarring. It was supposed to be a way of getting everyone to pin Dirk since he was such a hated character, as Katrina's recent destruction of his DS would prove to be the most childish yet appropriate of all motives. When she was killed though, the plan had to change from there. Worse, Mortimer was a witness to the whole DS fiasco being fake. And David, who had bumped in to her minutes previously, could have screwed up the timeline.

All three had to be eliminated. Or in the very least, detained.

"There," Evelyn said, as she wiped off the sweat from her brow. She had just gotten through the first screen, using the algorithm from B119's walls. TJ would be rolling in his grave if he ever realized what he stumbled upon.

Joseph had hired TJ of course, a long time ago. It was a one-man expedition that required the right mind and the right motivation, as they lowered him slowly to B120, immediately aware of the Note's promise of a clue. And in this case, the motivation was freedom, plain and simple. But things went awry when Daniel had to pull that stunt-the admission of Richard's accidental murder, which triggered Charles and Holly's death-forcing Grace to give chase, and Daniel eventually discovering TJ's plot.

Contrary to what everyone outside Joseph's circle wanted to believe. TJ did not die of hunger, and he certainly did not break his legs from the fall. Daniel had to take him down, in order to use him as a bargaining chip, a way back inside. He had beaten TJ to a bloody pulp, and knew about his relationship with the Gang. And while all that was said and done, and information about B120 being nothing more than a dead end was secretly disseminated, it was at this point that Joseph had begun to fear the Gang's supposed uprising.

His paranoia would doom them all.

"Second one down," Evelyn confidently concluded, as the second screen dissipated into a secret Desktop that not even Joseph has ever seen before. Evelyn scoffed in satisfaction. Joseph could never have noticed that she was always one step ahead of him, paranoid he may be.

Sure, he managed to get to the Gang's most vulnerable member: Carly, and used her simple mind to kill Daniel for what he did to TJ. And yes, he had made sure that whatever it was they had been working on the laptop sounded as vague as possible in order to give a very deceiving false impression of hope. But the truth was, Ronald was a keyboard clacker and nothing more. She already knew that because why bother sending TJ down below in the first place?

She knew that Ronald was just a distraction, to stall for time before Joseph could finally eliminate the last remnants of the Gang. By accomplishing this, Joseph would have the biggest group alive, and then he would've been unstoppable.

And that's where Alex came in.

Alex was the single most trusted person Evelyn could have. Ian had died early on, and Leo was too stupid to realize what was going on (and he had mysteriously disappeared during Dirk, Mortimer, and David's incarceration-about the same time Joseph began his reign of terror). He served as Evelyn's eyes and ears outside Joseph's circle, befriending the remnants of anyone left who might be able to topple Joseph down such as Marcus and Vic.

And Grace.

She was key, of course. She was the last of the Gang, and even though she was all that's left, she remained to be no threat except in the eyes of Joseph, who sought to obliterate any form of bondage. It was tough of course on Alex's part. Evelyn would cringe of curse every time she thought about it. But killing Carly by Grace's own hand would be one of the most important milestones in Evelyn's plot.

And finally, with Joseph's group finally eradicated, and all the other wildcards subdued, all Alex needed to do was erase Grace: the last potential link to this ingenious plot.

"Okay...here it is," Evelyn said in anticipation as her mouse hovered over the single solitary icon within the single solitary folder that was sitting on the desktop.

She double clicked it without hesitation.

Another window opened up, and diagnostics of all sorts began activating up. Bar graphs were moving up and down as lights were flashing. Eventually another window opened up in what looked like a command prompt. A picture of a radar antenna that was sitting on the upper right corner of the screen, was now "transmitting". The console filled the screen with numbers as a simple loading bar summarized the process.

**Deactivating...**

On the right panel, a list of names were loading up. Beside them were very precise details that measured heart rate, temperature, and even blood pressure. Evelyn winced as she saw this. She never knew how delicate these collars were. As she scanned the list, it was obvious that there was only two names left that hadn't been grayed out: herself and Alex's.

That is, until she scrolled down to the bottom.

Healy, Grace - - - ALIVE -21C

Evelyn blinked in disbelief as the text grayed out within the next two seconds only to pop out again.

Healy, Grace - - - ALIVE -18C

She was getting warmer.

"A..Alex...?" Evelyn managed to say, shuddering in between. "Are you sure Grace is...?" Evelyn was trying hard to form the right words but the chill up her spine was more than just a chill up her spine. There was a breeze-no a frosty feeling-creeping up behind her. And last she checked there was nobody in the room.

Alex just sat there, indifferent and calm. Evelyn's reactions were perplexing him, but it didn't matter. He could clearly see something that shouldn't be in the room. It was small, human-shaped, and it was somewhat hovering closely behind Evelyn who refused to turn around. Instead of screaming though , he merely smiled in defeat.

"Oh little girl," Alex mused to himself. "Why won't you ever leave me alone?"

**Results:**

? - Grace: Cease to *&g8dh# fbzzz…

ERROR: Integrity compromised. Unable to confirm.


	16. Indelible

The Last Night

For awhile the empty silence lingered as Alex gazed at the night sky. It felt weird being the only inhabitant left, and strangely not as comforting as he had surmised it to be. Too many times did his head twist and turn, his eyes trying to find the smallest shifting shadow that could even be considered as a shred of presence. The cold air blew as his lips stuttered, babbling incoherently under his breath like a failed comeback. Clutched under his arms were his two closest friends: a bottle of beer and his trusty sidearm, which he had been waving around all night.

"I KNOW WHERE YOU ARE!"

Alcohol was not Alex's strongest drink. For a mere drop could drive him insane, or so he exaggerated. But this was a celebration of life AND death! He wanted to feel special. At around the eighth bottle the intoxication had settled in, but Alex himself had not and so what was suppose to be a mere ten seconds had become an eternity since Alex proclaimed his pseudo-omnipresence to the heavens.

"No, not really...,"

If only he were less humble.

Alex choked on a belch as he stumbled towards a nearby pillar and slumped down on the spot. "...but I know you're all out there. Plotting. Conspiring," As he stopped to think of a better word, a pair of eyes seemingly materialized from the corner of Alex's own. Without turning his head, Alex nodded cunningly and scoffed in acknowledgement it. He was drunk, but drunk with power. He saw her. And inspiration hit the fan. "Scheming,"

So slowly did she rise to her feet, and amble towards him inches at a time. Alex merely smiled again, expressing his discomfort from sitting too long as the numbness had already reached below his nether regions.

"Not against me per se, but eventually, it would have come to that-I mean, I was just as surprised when I saw Marcus die," Alex paused and bit his lip. He had to admit, seeing Marcus's body drop dead was the most amusing thing he had seen since Dirk's overkill. It paled and polarized completely to Marcus's own version of short and sweet. He really must thank the director for putting on such a wonderful show, he thought as he put it on his list of things to do once he gets out of here.

"You didn't have anything to do with that did you?" No response. At this point, the figure was looming over Alex. He looked up in glee-something that had been missing for some time now. As the moon shined on and Alex's eyes eased up to the darkness, the picture they produced was comforting. Now he has a certain someone to share it with, a companion in these dark times. Now his night was complete. He felt at ease to reveal his secret to happiness.

"It's human nature," Alex proclaimed with a slick slow roll of the tongue. He felt a little embarrassed and remorseful from having to say it out loud. With the bottle now running on empty, Alex looked out towards the empty hall and admired its serenity. And just as he did, his mind wandered to a not-so-distant past when the place was livelier, and the people were really people.

And she, was another person altogether.

He was ignorant back then, putting his trust in that one God, hoping to appease Him by burying all the bodies that have since become a bane to their existence. Three accidents, two murders-one of which was intentional, and a suicide, all lined up in closely-knit graves. As Alex heaved the final body into the shallow plot, he was startled by the girl at the gate. Pistol in hand and eyes vigilant, she was fuelled by gratuitous self-loathing.

_Daniel..._

Such strong negative feelings did not suit her, Alex blurted, inadvertently triggering blind rage within the lady. She lashed uncontrollably, without any semblance of thought or reasoning. He would push on, going to topics even her best friend Carly dare not traverse. He wanted to nail the truth to her forehead, and show his God he was only trying to help.

_Alex...what did you do to her...?_

But Alex realized, as he probed further that death was all but natural. It was malicious, and completely superficial. And he knew that vengeful fragile heart was just the beginning. He knew she had more friends she could turn towards, and more friends she could hurt. Joseph had already warned him about this weakness one week too late. He gravely underestimated Alex's ability to think for himself, scheming as early as then, when he first made his official presence known, bible in hand. Gimmick complete.

His plan was already set.

And all this, thanks to her, to whom he would never have spawned were it not for their common interest in seeing the end of things. While Evelyn had been busy cleaning up Joseph's mess inadvertently erupting a civil war, Alex had been cleaning up _her_ messes by making sure her plans succeeded too well. This of course required the death of a certain best friend.

_That demented smile! And-Carly's bloody battered body all over the-that was you? How...what did you...how could you?_

How could he indeed.

The Last Day

"How could you?"

The question echoed again and again from that night up until this moment, and Alex was so convinced of the answer, he felt miffed having to say it. But if he knew Evelyn well, she'd be ever so relentless in pursuing the truth and that would annoy him to even more. Oh Evelyn, he thought to himself, the mighty Evelyn; started out as a strong leader for the cause and now a former shell of herself, about to be struck down by one of her own.

Evelyn tried to whisper and whimper at the same time, pleading her case towards the room but nobody listened. Her murderer-to-be's eyes looked so lifeless and hollow, she could not sway her to think otherwise. Alex only smiled in satisfaction.

"Forget about her, Evelyn. She's lost everything, what makes you think she'll listen to you? I mean, you were the one that ordered her friends' slaughter in the first place."

"What did you do to her...?"

"Nothing," Alex effortlessly replied. "She wants to do this. Albeit, there was a little...resistance in the beginning. She eventually warmed up to my ideals."

"Fuck you," Evelyn huffed. She just couldn't believe it. For Joseph to sway half a crowd to work towards a common goal might have been believable in the very least. But to own someone's will and then completely dominate it in ways inhumanly possible-Evelyn shuddered as she tried hard not to think about what Alex may have been doing to Grace every night but the more she thought about it, the more that scarring image pressed into her, breaking her away.

No. She mustn't lose herself in this, she thought. There was still some way she could reach out, she managed to muster to herself. Alex though, smug as he had always been, albeit now in a more sinister light, was glad to alleviate all of Evelyn's paranoid delusions with a simple demonstration.

"Kill me."

Evelyn blinked in disbelief as she looked up to Grace who was still in her little trance. After a tense second, she slowly turned her head towards Alex and looked as if she was about to say something. She never did.

"Isn't this what you've always wanted to do? Go ahead then, girl. Kill. Me,"

Nothing still. Evelyn tried to think of an escape plan but her entire body had apparently been paralyzed by the awkwardly confusing scene. A wave of hope escaped her, as it slowly drained the warm feeling in her fingers. Grace simply would not budge.

"We had a little bet, she and I," Alex said, coming close within stabbing range and breathing heavily into her face. "Well, it was more of a gamble actually. We were talking about which one of us was the first to crack. And I said she would," Casually, Alex crept up to her personal space, and slung an arm over her shoulder. "Because she has all those friends bringing her down, and don't get me wrong but I have friends here too. But it was a battle of attrition, you see. Except whoever had the most friends, lost."

Alex quickly took the knife from her hands and held it within mere inches of Grace's forehead. "Naturally, I was around to pick up the pieces when she first cracked. Because I care about her, Evelyn. I'm not a bad guy. She soon calmed down to my way of thinking. She soon took fate into her own hands. And it is her will, NOT to kill me. It is however my will...," Evelyn cringed in fear as Alex suddenly touched flesh, and began a slow downward slice to the bridge of Grace's nose. A little blood began to seep through the wound, but the little girl remained still as ever. "...to tell her to."

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry...," was all Evelyn managed to say, as the horrific scene forever burned into her mind. All the planning and scheming in the past, was nothing compared to what Alex himself had prepared to do. That realization alone was enough to stop her completely.

"You still don't get it, do you? This isn't about vengeance, or hatred, or anything. See, I've taken all that away. I've taken everything that's been a criterion to get killed around here. Now, she's the killer and none's the wiser."

Evelyn sagged, unable to even control her breathing much less make a witty retort. Her cards had all been played out and up to this point she had remained calm and stalwart enough to be sane. Encountering the unpredictable at this point in time, was too much for her to handle however. She sobbed now, trying to hide it but Alex could spot her even though he was a few feet away. As she fell on her knees, defeated and dejected from the apparent intellectual checkmate, it was then that Alex knew, his time had come.

"I win."

She motioned closer, knife brandished and eerily shining despite the rust and blood dripping from its tip. Like a brazen zombie she stood at the ready, waiting on Alex's word.

Alex slowly limped towards the door, still feeling the sting on his leg. He cursed Vic about it under his breath before finally recomposing himself. "You know the hardest part was getting over the fact that I was never going to see you again after all this. Joseph should've taken my advice...the fellow never had it in him to kill anyone despite everything. It wasn't all me, you know."

"...don't be so goddamn modest," Evelyn managed to say, gritting her teeth in annoyance.

"Oh you didn't know? Joseph was trying to play us against each other. When the time came, he was going to use our friendship-gone-bad as an excuse. Well, at least THAT part of the plan succeeded," he chuckled uncontrollably, enjoying this newfound feeling of superiority.

"I knew about the password a long time ago, Evelyn," Alex droned on, as he made his way to the door. "Why do you think I locked all of you outside in the first place? Marcus blowing his top off, that was a surprise to me too. And glad I took the precautions, but if anyone could figure out the code aside from TJ it was you. I've got to admire your tenacity. Even when everyone's nearly gone, you're still holding on to what pathetic hope there may be! From the beginning the note already told us it was one or all. How stupid can you be? USE YOUR HEAD WOMAN!"

Evelyn winced as Alex kicked her on the side of the head, making sure his point stuck on. It was a weak-willed blow but it hurt nonetheless, in more places than one. Evelyn hung her head low, facing her execution as Alex casually strolled to freedom.

"Kill her," was the last thing Evelyn heard before Alex finally stepped out.

What would soon come were screams and shouts from the classroom. Maybe a little whimpering and disturbing laughter. Alex didn't really care, he wasn't listening. As he made his way downstairs, he took a good clean look at the place for the last time. He even went as far as taking his time, and walking in pseudo-slow motion. A manic montage of chaos played in his mind, recanting the twisted tale of thirty students and their terrifying test.

He loved happy endings.

B119 never looked so beautiful. With its backdoor still ajar, Alex knew this was his road to freedom. But as he stepped inside the lab, he failed to see one minor detail: Vic was suspiciously missing. The moment uneasiness filled Alex's head, the door swiftly closed and locked itself behind him. And it seems that the way out was a tease too, as that door followed suit as well. In the doorway's place however was a very pissed off Vic.

"Welcome to the roach motel, Alex."

Vic faked a lunge as Alex ran to the right. A long steel table was the only thing separating the two men from each other. Not to mention, the all too familiar sound from hell was back:

BEEP BEEP BEEP

"Bravo Vic," Alex chided. "What are you going to blow up? Thin air?"

"Something like that," Vic retorted in confidence, slowly rolling his eyes up. Alex was quick to follow Vic's cue, as he managed to spot the last of the collars strapped to what seemed to be a gas main.

"You're bluffing!"

"This is the smartest thing I've done all day, jackass!" Vic churned, attempting to feign weakness as his injuries struggle to get the best of him. "You may have screwed over Evelyn, but I'm not one to fall for the same trick twice. I don't know what she and you agreed to, but one thing's for sure...you're not leaving this place!"

"You wouldn't dare."

"Try me."

BEEEEEP BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEP

"You'll kill us both!" Alex cried, breaking from character for the first time in awhile. "What have you to gain by doing that?"

"It's not about me anymore, buddy," Alex couldn't believe Vic would say something like that with a straight face. "Can you imagine a world where both of us can exist? I can't see it, I'm sorry."

"If you die, no one will remember your pathetic sacrifice. We can both walk out of here and forget everything. We can make it, it's just THERE!"

"Save your breath, Alex," Vic finally said, slumping against the door with one hand on the doorknob. The head wound he had suffered from Evelyn's blow was beginning to take it's toll. "I'm not doing this for myself. I don't have anything worth redeeming. I'm just doing this because I can." His head lowered now from extreme dizziness, it didn't help that the gas fumes were getting stronger.

The only thing Vic had left on him, was the weakest smile he could forge. His logic was infallible, and in his mind victory was in sight. But more importantly, he'd finally have the chance to find peace in himself. As he bowed down in shame, he sought to be redeemed for all the misdeeds he had done. Everything from Joseph's schemes to this moment. Everything. And his final directive came with his last words.

"That, and I bet it pisses you off a whole lot,"

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

"AAAAARRRGHHH!"

A shrill scream was the only thing Marcus could hear as he buried his head on the grassy knoll. He dare not look or even think about Vic's humble sacrifice. He never intended to leave but when Vic was dragging his half-dead body without even a hint of resistance, he didn't exactly have a choice. Marcus couldn't tell what came after the scream: the FWOOM or the BOOM. But there were literally flames all over the place. Benjamin Hall's southwest wing was completely obliterated as pieces of debris flew from all over the place. It were as if hellfire erupted from the ground and engulfed everybody from within.

Everybody except him. The charity case.

As he reached for the feeling in his legs, he noticed that his cell phone was still intact. Instinctively reaching for it, he dialled the first three numbers that came to mind: 911. The signal flew up as the call pushed through, but by then Marcus was already sprawled on the ground, weak and exhausted.

But more importantly, it was painless.

**Results:**

1st - Marcus: Blaze of Glory

? – ERROR

? – ERROR

? – ERROR

? – ERROR


	17. Next

One Week Later

Evelyn's eyes shot wide open as her vision fluctuated in and out. The cold air revitalized her as the chill up her spine caught her body by surprise. As her head had been reintroduced to a dizzy spell and her mind was still floating in the clouds, she struggled to regain some semblance of orientation. Was the room moving all on its own? No...she began to think...it's only the bed. The bed is sitting me up.

Despite the mechanical whirring of the hospital bed, Evelyn still tried to lift her head on her own and as she did this she was surprised to still be able to move with such ease. No nerve seemed out of place and no bone seemed to be broken. She could still feel this energy within her-dwindling as it may seem-pulsing from within from head to toe, like a newfound strength. Or quite possibly just the strength to survive.

To live.

The ambience of the ICU was giving her some peace. Instinctively, she was glad to be alone, away from conspirators and attackers alike. Her re-acquaintance with the Powers that Be were interrupted however, by a figure in the room. Evelyn squinted only a second, for despite everything she's been through she could immediately recognize him.

With every step the professor took towards her, her blood began rushing back into her head. She couldn't tell if it was anxiety or excitement, but a fresh face was better than any student she had been spending her time with for over a month now. Any student's face for that matter, gave her scarring visions. At one point an image of Benjamin Hall bursting in flames flashed into her mind, making her jump inside. She shuddered, as if trying to shake it all away. Try as she might to ease her mental pains, the image of a maddened Grace still taunted her, forever watermarked at the back of her mind. That was Evelyn's curse now.

As he approached the foot of the bed, he stopped. It looked like he was about to say something but retreated on his decision to. Evelyn was too weak to think of anything despite the questions bursting through her impeccable mind and the reassurance of safety. Closing her eyes once again, she decided to just ask the most simplified unifying question she could think of.

"Was it worth it?"

After what seemed like forever, he sighed a long deep exasperating sigh. Wiping the imaginary sweat off his brow, he finally answered back...

"Was it?"

* * *

"Name, please?"

"Alex. Alex Vale...,"

The middle-aged man re-adjusted his glasses for the umpteenth time, as he began clacking his pen and tapping his clipboard. He had an air of suave about but it could just as easily be replaced with mild arrogance. This was a job interview after all and for the next hour or so, Alex was this man's bitch.

"So...," said the man, pretending to be interested. "...tell me about yourself."

Alex's lips began moving, with his brain backing him up every step of the way. At the same time, he seemed preoccupied with the What-ifs and had he ever heard of this company in the first place. As if the smarminess wasn't enough, he began to consider why he was here in the first place, listening and talking for a smalltime job with an even smaller salary for a person he doesn't even respect.

"Yes, go on."

Alex forged a smile midway, hiding the sentiment as he bit his lip, and droned on about the usual basic information. He was careful not to say anything out of the ordinary. He knew he had alot of that. When it came to the aspirations and expectations part of the interview, he was a natural. Already having plenty of experiences with dealing with people, the hard part was over, he thought.

"I see. Well, that's good."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Alex relaxed and reclined a bit in front of the interviewer obviously charmed by his way of words.

"It says here your leadership skills are excellent, recommended to the highest degree. You must take pride in handling people. They say it's one of your best assets,"

"Well, yes, and I believe I can push them to the limit. I-"

"So, the end justifies the means. Is that what you mean?"

Alex felt a flutter of tension rising. Was it him or was the room getting warmer all of a sudden? He was quick to readjust his seat at the onset of being interrupted again, and took to explaining things as coolly as he can.

"In this case, the end does justify the means. No offense on anyone I'll be working with but all I care about is the work. As a leader, I can see the bigger picture and what may seem like needless sacrifice could very well be one step forward," The man began scribbling on his little clipboard as Alex droned on. He was on the right track.

"Interesting. So you're an extremely objective person. That's good, we need people like you," Alex breathed a sigh of relief. He was finally in the safe zone. "But the real world isn't like school. I'm sure you realize that. The world can be very dangerous. It could possibly break you, and drive you up the wall if you know what I mean."

Or not.

"You're telling me you can handle being on top of all that. That you can take care of competition and sometimes failure...,"

"Rest assured, it will never come to that," Alex said, regaining the initiative. "Work and life are pretty much the same. It's strategic combat, it's a constant struggle for power. And I will stake it on my life and integrity that failing is the last thing on my mind,"

"Well said. I think we're just about done here. I just have one more thing to ask about...,"

Alex raised an eyebrow. He wasn't expecting a pop-up question on the last minute.

* * *

Marcus furrowed his brow as he attempted to make sense of all the paperwork piling up his desk. There were forms needed to be filled, and blanks that needed signing. As much as he loathed the bureaucratic process of this day and age, he could hardly complain against his staggering five-figure salary. He was the number one consultant on the block, on-call for 24 hours, and an associate on the side. As if that wasn't enough, he had an entire legion of officers at his beck and call, not to mention the dozens of interns who would sometimes peek into his office and shrivel at the sheer grandiosity of his appearance.

Marcus is of course, referring to his eye patch. It was a bothersome thing on occasion, but it served its purpose. Often times, he would be by the water cooler exchanging 'war stories' as people would call it. "What happened to your eye?" was always a hot topic. And Marcus never got tired of telling it. Every retelling was never the same.

Amputated by red ants? Who was going to believe him.

The working world was mediocre and mundane, at least to him. Not that a day goes by that he could ever forget what transpired in that place. The explosion, the blood, the insanity, was just too much of a nightmare to forget about. As far as he knew nobody survived that explosion, and no sooner was he given immediate treatment for his injuries, did the calls start coming in. They were job offers from all over the country. The rest was history.

Often times, he would think about not being worthy of surviving. But two things were always stumping his logic: One, the memory of Vic shoving him out and telling him he'll be right back (just have to take care of something...). And two, that dreaded night when a pack of lawyers and mysteriously ominous suits came to his apartment and swore him to secrecy. There was a death threat here and there, it didn't really matter. The mere fact that they could come and go as they pleased was enough to bring a little fear in Marcus. A conspiracy was brewing, and that was none of his concern.

They haven't been seen since. Marcus was always careful not to bring too much attention to himself. For awhile, reporters and colleagues would drop by and attempt to pry the truth from him. He never spoke a word, and they were never seen again. Tough. This was just work. That's all that mattered to him. After all he had just had a crash course in survival, now it was just a matter of using that knowledge in the real world.

Another day, another job done, Marcus thought as he rode the elevator down and briskly walked towards his shiny new Lexus. It was the first thing he ever bought using his own salary. It was his pride and joy. But just as he was about to reach for his keys, he felt the most unnerving presence...as if he was being watched. And with the entire car park as desolate and quiet, this was as creepy as it could get.

Marcus fumbled for the key ring in the lining of his pants pocket when a tap on the shoulder made him jump. He spun around only to find an old friend.

"How have you been?"

"G...Grace!" Marcus managed to say, attempting to keep his composure. How could he forget that she was working around this area as well. Oh that's right, he thought, when the lawyers told him not to remember a single thing about that event in the first place! "You can't be seen here! You have to leave."

It took awhile before Marcus realized he had struck a very dangerous chord. Out of everyone who had survived the entire ordeal, she had it the worse. They found her lying on the lawn right next to Evelyn with broken glass and tiny pieces of metal spread all over the place. Knife still in hand, she fainted from her injuries when Evelyn made one last lunge, pushing them both off the third floor balcony window at the apex of the explosion.

As they wheeled Evelyn off, they had to segregate Grace from the hospital and "resensitize" the violence back into her. Marcus cringed at the thought of that word. He had read one of the reports on those sometime ago. Words like 'psycho-surgery' and 'electroshock therapy' were just a few of the words that lined the first page.

Marcus bowed out in paranoia, attempting to recompose himself. He could not look at Grace straight in the eye, not with all those tiny burns hidden underneath her snazzy business attire. It couldn't be helped.

"...sorry,"

"Forget it," Grace said. "I just can't take it anymore," The resensitizing program was her worse nightmare, as it kept her up more times than she could count. She tried consoling herself but really how can one forget so much violence in a week, much less keep quiet about it? That was the real insanity of it!

"Grace...," Marcus pined, attempting to talk her out of what he thought she was about to do. "Just forget about the past. It's a fresh start for all of us,"

"Most especially for you!"

Marcus remained silent. She was this close from going on and ranting about how his case was a simple matter of dumb luck, and if she had been rubbed the wrong way, she would've killed him right now from where he stood.

"What would the Gang think, Grace? Think about them,"

"What would they think? What would they SAY! They'd want to speak out too! The world has to know about the truth. Friends are and have been all that's mattered to me...and now they're gone. THIS is what they'd want. It's for us all!"

"No...," Marcus shrivelled, turning towards the Lexus with key in hand. "It's just for you, and your friends in hell. Leave me out of this,"

"You're a coward,"

"And you're an idiot! You've seen what they could do, what they're capable of. I won't be a part of another war. Not me...," His hands were firmly on the handle as the car door swung open. "Leave me alone, Grace. I can't take this anymore as well!" The car door shut itself as the engine began to hum. Grace just stood there, defeated yet again. Marcus rounded the parking floor and he caught a glimpse of her for the last time in one of his side mirrors. He drove on, never thinking to look back.

Had he actually did, he would've noticed an even darker looking Sedan quickly pull up from behind Grace, where men in black coats grab her within the next five seconds, and then drive off towards another area of the parking building. They say she screamed her hardest that night. But no one would ever know. For Marcus would be the last person to ever see her again.

* * *

"They asked me to choose one,"

Evelyn could not believe it. She would not hear any of it. But who was she fooling, really? She's been doing that for quite some time now.

"They came to me, with an offer I couldn't refuse. I had a chance to choose one student...my star pupil of course, to live,"

Evelyn swore, if she could walk out of here, she would. Instead, she was trapped and bedridden, forced to hear some form of fabrication. Lies! That's all they were. That's all they can only be. What kind of professor could be this scary?

"They used my name and reputation as a front. Who else could be the one responsible for such elaborate and eccentric schemes? But that was just a precaution, they were going to cover it up anyways. They had everything figured out,"

"Who are these people?"

"Evelyn, do you remember what I told you guys before the last day of school. About the competitive market?"

Evelyn swallowed dry air, as she pushed herself to the truth, as ridiculous as it may sound. "The companies,"

"The companies!" he chimed, feeling the uneasiness of bittersweet memories. "The companies these days, are not in the market for students of your kind and caliber. They are actually looking forward to hiring unrefined graduates," He paused awhile, making sure Evelyn got all that. It was becoming another class lecture again. "Well this year, the your batch has been-saturated. All of you smart students, have been giving the companies a hard time. You guys were just not ready for the current market. They had no choice...they had to dwindle your numbers."

"WHAT?" was all Evelyn could say. "But-how-why-I don't-"

"They weren't suppose to make it out, all 30 of them. Now the project's been compromised because of the survivors. Nobody ever thought the collars could be used for destructive purposes. Nobody saw that coming,"

Putting herself in the precarious position of her mentor, she could easily sympathize. It was always easier for her to understand anyway, and she just decided to trust in the impossible. What else could she possibly believe in?

"That's it, then," he said, as he hastened for the door.

"What's going to happen to me then?"

"Nothing as far as anyone's concerned. You're my pick. So, you were never meant to be harmed to begin with. I just...I need some time to myself. I can't-I have to go," the sorrowful way the professor walked out, echoed all over Evelyn. As the door closed shut leaving her thoughts to the heavily air-conditioned room, she lay back down and closed her eyes. A part of her wanted to fight fate, but quite frankly she was tired. Too tired to fight and too tired to reason, fate had won this round.

* * *

Alex blinked at the simplicity of the question. "Excuse me?"

"As you know, this firm in particular is known for its 'methods' of acquiring fresh graduates such as yourself. I'm sure you're already familiar with our selection process, as you yourself are one of these people. If you tried applying normally we wouldn't even give you a moment's notice. So my question is, why pick us? Why agree with our methods? Don't you just find this a little, unorthodox?"

Alex didn't know how to respond but oh yes he did. The answer was too tempting not to ignore. "I think we're all 'unorthodox' people in this world, sir. And these companies that look cutthroat from the outside, are just really that. By being inside these places, we all turn out to become monsters. Even the calm ones. I think the rules continue changing and we all have to get with the program and adapt. And to those who refuse to shed a little humanity...well, those are the real monsters to tell you the truth."

The usual awkward silence came next and eventually the ubiquitous congratulatory remarks. Alex had passed with flying collars as he left the room, eager to cool off. He felt so relieved and excited that, he barely noticed the man was still inside, writing up a storm of his own:

_Subject appears to enjoy extraversion, though not one himself. He has a tendency to chatter even on the most trivial things. Subject is overly dramatic, reckless in speech, and an avid attention seeker._

_Upon closer observation, his motivations seem genuine but slightly inappropriate. The subject desires being a leader but to an extreme, something akin to power but I think the more appropriate word would be control. He enjoys engaging in intelligent conversations, but most likely only motivated by the promise of a high-paying job. Subject seems more reactive to a leadership position than an equal one, despite the fact that the latter would pay more._

_It's my belief that the Subject has an immense desire to dominate in any relationship. He must direct and orchestrate any and every activity. These are, I believe, traits of Sadistic Personality Disorder. It is truly a rare (the first in fact) opportunity to see how a Sadist would appeal to the Program. He could have even more potential than that previous girl. _

_It is with this specialists' greatest reccomendation that this Subject be initiated into the Program. Above all else, his item must be something to compromise or become something of a moral backbone to him._

_Something like, a bible perhaps?_

* * *

"Noooo way...,"

Benjamin Hall's corridors hustled and bustled as the school bell rang. The accompanying pitter-patter of footsteps soon littered the halls and stairs as the shining morning sun permeated through the green greens of its central garden. It was a beautiful day.

"It totally happened!"

One lone student though lingered on the edge of these greens admiring the scene. The mobilization, the thumping of feet, and the orderly method by which the students were transitioning from one class to another. Almost like clockwork, and nobody but him noticed. To everyone else, routine was routine. And it used to be the same for him as well until the days turned to meticulous months of suffering. Time almost seemed to taunt him now even as mere seconds pass. Though he was a senior now, the clock had grinded him into a rusty screeching halt. And with every moment that passes, his senses forcibly refine him to the point of near exhaustion.

His entire body was in pain.

"The bodies then? Don't tell me they're buried beneath this place."

And sitting so smugly he was, as he watched a group of freshmen sitting on the lawn. One of them in particular was standing on his knees, dramatically regaling a tale of epic proportions. He almost fell over as the small crowd ooh-ed and aah-ed themselves into belief. It's been how long, the Senior mused, and still the rumours persist.

"Probably ten. Or maybe even twenty,"

Gullible as they were, the Senior knew the truth. The freshman storyteller, just as every freshman storyteller before him, could never believe the real deal. He enjoyed the attention anyway, as did everyone. The tale itself had as much asymptotic fictional quality as the Boogeyman: the deeper you were to finding out, the less likely one would be interested in him. After all, he was just telling a story, and it really was a story worth hearing. It was a fantastic piece of fiction. An urban legend.

"Whatever happened to that Eve chick? Did she make it out?"

"Whaddya think," the freshman chuckled. "But I heard she wasn't able to get into working as easily as the rest of em. Top of the class and all, it's a real shame...," The crowd fell silent. As fictional as it may seem, the fate of one scorned woman still scared them into submission. The Senior managed a smile. He was always impressed by the storyteller's ability to sound so genuine.

Evelyn was alright, last he checked. For the longest time, every major company shunned her for the smallest reasons, only managing to make it to a lesser known firm in the span of 2 years. And while she did eventually regain her health, spirit, and momentum, it only took her twice the amount of time than she had won in the first place.

No word on anyone else. Marcus was in the paper all the time: some kind of 'Prodigy' in the corporate world. At least, that was the gossip going on. Any freshman knew his name and story, few would ever choose to believe it. And he himself, could say nothing.

They all went somewhere, became something. But he had to stay in here still, to rot, or relive. Recycle of life, as he called it. Now wheelchair bound, Vic could do nothing but stare into space-specifically these children-and think to himself about the trials they were about to face.

He smiled.

That freshman storyteller in particular, is so going to die first.

**The End**

**Final Results:**

1st - Marcus: Blaze of Glory

2nd - Evelyn: Insignificant Other

3rd - Vic: My World

4th - Grace: Cease to Exist

5th - Alex: Sadism


	18. Goodbye

Well, here it is. All done. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I tried my best to subvert every kind of usual cliche a BR fanfic of this type would offer. The final product may have even strayed from anything BR but whatever, it was a good run and I finished it.

I did some ample reading around here myself before getting started. Very fine work around here (I haven't finished it all yet). "How NOT to write Battle Royale fanfiction" by Fomalhaut especially, it's an insightful read and served as one of the bases for my ideas. You guys should check it out if you're planning to write one of your own, it really helps.

I had a lot of ideas initially, and didn't know how exactly I was going to go about the story yet as I dove into the 2nd chapter. In the end, I dumped some of my more exciting actiony sequences (hence the now misleading title) to focus on the paranoia and the slow spiralling descent into madness, something I don't think I've ever seen pulled off all the way before. Usually the madness is often an afterthought or a given but that's just me.

Anyways, welcome to the A/N Section. This is where you'll find my dirty laundry: secret stuff, tidbits, random things I just wanna talk about. Let's start with some of the things that never made it to the final cut...

**Deleted Scenes/Retired Ideas:**

- There were even more students trapped in other buildings, and there would be interaction between them. It would've ended up with 45 students in total. I quickly decided against making the premise any longer than it already is. That, and the whole trapped-in-a-building aspect might weaken.

- Other buildings had snipers ready to kill whoever went out of bounds. I decided to just go for the whole radar limit instead to show that the students really were the only ones around.

- Dirk was supposed to be my original psycho. But I deemed it too obvious and cliche. Instead, I had the least likely of characters to fill those roles instead. Plus, psycho-stand-ins like David, Joseph, and Regina were supposed to have a big clash in the end but I felt psychos were the last thing I want to portay in a story where the sane are the focus and the crazies might end up stealing the spotlight.

- The building itself was supposed to be a hybrid science lab, so I expected writing places like a laser lab, a geo lab, a library, and a chemistry lab. In the end the latter was the only thing that made it. I realized halfway that the environmental deaths were too unrealistic and cliche (a student manning a laser he has never seen before? or a student pushing library bookcases in a cascading manner to squish someone?) and it just felt like a lazy and predictable way to induce a creative death. This is also why the story seems to imply that the building is smaller than it looks. It's actually alot bigger, and I left out any particular detail about the locales (except the beginning) instead to let the reader decide for him/herself how exactly the place looks.

- I had an entire subplot about how the food and water supply was actually poisoned and that one of the items held the antidote. The poison would also suddenly explain how and why the students just begun killing each other. I threw it out because it couldn't fit the ending. And some artificial substance causing the students to kill each other sounded off for a BR story.

- The Professor was supposed to show up at some point. At first as a hallucination, then as the real mastermind. Once again, cliche. And it felt out of place. He soon appeared near and in the end to act as my red herring.

- Joseph, Ronald, and Vic were suppose to be my nod to the Lighthouse Girls in the original BR. They would end up going mad from isolation and kill themselves by compromising their position without majorly interacting with what was suppose to be a main plot of my own. They were suppose to be the only people that ironically went naturally insane as opposed to everyone else who just started killing for no reason (see poisoned plot above). But after abandoning the latter notion and just made everybody reluctant to kill in the first place, the closet boys' roles became pointless so I had them become one of the villains instead.

- In the very very beginning, I was thinking of slating Liam and the Gang as the main protagonists. I quickly decided against that at about the time Joseph surfaced, realizing how cliche and predictable that would've turned out. Joseph himself references this early on.

- I was tempted to focus more on action at one point, even including a car chase of all things in the initial drafts. More action scenes were the only thing I regret not putting in this story.

- There was suppose to be detailed rape in there. Two scenes of it. It's quite easy to figure out where I could've put that in. I deemed it graphically pointless and removed it in the final draft. (not that I can write a decent rape scene anyways ^_^;)

- Before Marcus makes that call that saved his life, he was suppose to attempt to escape on foot, and realize that the entire school building was on an island much like the original BR's island plot device. Then I would have some kind of epilogue saying that they made a replica of their school building just to mess with them and for the sake of authenticity. While this is a nice add, I sort of just left it vague for the intention of making a prequel (if ever. see below.).

**Pointless Trivia/Behind the Scenes stuff**:

- I've never completely read any BR material. All I knew were the iconic stuff like the lighthouse girls, the crazy professor, and the premise of collars in an island. I didn't want the plot to be spoiled by any bias towards the story of BR itself. But I did read it as this story came to its end. I like the manga the most, the novel second, and the movie last.

- As a matter of fact, the note in the beginning of Chapter One was quite right. I went around in real life, asking 20 people what they would bring if they were trapped in a building for a week. Then I asked 10 others what they would bring if thy were in a Battle Royale for a week. This is why some of the items were basic, rudimentary stuff like clothes and food, some really really didn't make sense, and some were quite fitting of a BR in terms of deadliness.

- Every chapter title including this if you wanna get technical has exactly one word, never repeating in the letters they begin with.

- If you read very closely in the early chapters, I reference that the entire event was set in a universe where BR is acknowledged as a work of fiction. But I left it as vague as possible for alternate interpretation's sake.

- While the students are dead-on (ooh pun) 30 in all, the items I think, I may have messed up with. For one, there are two #21's in there. And I'm just too lazy to fix it. Apologies. Also, not all 30 items are revealed in the story. This one, is intentional for no other reason than to be realistic.

- I'm probably not going to be writing anything in a long time, but I've got many stories in mind, one of which is a prequel entitled "Eternal Summer". It would be told in the POV of Brian and Nelia, the first two that kicked the bucket early on in this story, as they suffer a somewhat similar situation two semesters ago in the middle of summer. My other ideas are spread to other fandoms for the moment.

**Final Words:**

Now that the story is complete, please R&R my fic. I would love to improve myself the next time I try something like this.

I really really can't afford to invest time right now for future projects. Things are going to be even hectic for me real soon. I really can't say when I might start writing something big like this again. I'll probably still be around to read some of the wonderful fics here and maybe just write some short fics or do some edits on this one. I've got one small fic in mind about an aptitude battery of some sort. And writing the prequel is another thing altogether. It's a huge project in itself. Anyways, drop me a line or two and tell me what you think.

So, till then. I hope you've enjoyed reading this story. Bye guys! See you soon!


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